Depleted Uranium - Much Worse Than 9/11

[Oscar]

July 25, 2006
Fm: Jacob Rempel
Reference My Email Subject : Munitions with Depleted Uranium - Each shell is a "dirty nuclear bomb" that sickens and kills forever - Much Worse Than 9/11

Dear Dawn Black, my Member of Parliament for all of Canada.

Thank you for your reply to my letter.

On June 30th, I sent the referenced email to every Member of Parliament. Only you have replied. No other MP even acknowledged receipt. Thank you for your responsible actions in the H of C, not only about the use of radioactive weapons, but also about other extreme weapons against civilians, soldiers, and the entire earth.

I must add that every MP should be speaking up on these issues, not just one MP in one party, just one MP with a specific assignments to critique the government about Defence and Peace. The issues pervade all issues of government, all life.

Every MP needs to speak for all of Canada in the matter of war and peace and war crimes.

With respect to the wars alone, and Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and, yes, indirectly Iraq too, and even directly with Canadian industry supporting the wars, the issue of war crime liability is enough for Canada to withdraw from all joint operations with the USA forces, all joint training, all North American joint military planning.

This radiation attack on Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps on Lebanon? is a permanent nuclear war against innocent civilians of this and
future generations. This issue is greater than a simple difference of opinion in debate. It's suffering and death of millions, and our guilt, being knowingly accessory in the crime.

As a longtime politically involved Canadian, many issues are high in my priorities, but this issue of culpable involvement with USA indiscriminate
violence everywhere is important above all other issues. Canada must withdraw all support and cooperation from all USA military enterprise.
*Since only you have replied, I must ask you whether you have any serious helpful support from other MPs in your party and other parties. It seems to me there should be enough understanding among all MPs about the issues as you raised them on June 6th. There should be enough to force a vote of confidence.

*As well, we need a campaign to outlaw all use of DU in any munitions, a campaign like the campaign against the use on land mines. There are probably countries other than the USA involved. I read some information that the USSR used it in Afghanistan, for example.

Thank you for your efforts. I look forward to hearing from you.

...Jacob Rempel , Vancouver Kingsway

For now, I will copy this to only a few persons who think and feel as I do.
yasch@shaw.ca
________________
Dawn Black, MP NDP Critic for Defence and Peace Advocacy

Dear Jacob, Thank you for your email regarding depleted uranium. I read the information you provided with interest.

This is an issue that concerns me greatly, and I have taken several measures to hold the Government accountable for its use. Please find below a copy of the questions that I asked Minister O'Connor on 6th June 2006.

Ms. Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam)
With regard to the use of weapons in Afghanistan:
(a) do Canadian Forces (CF) in Afghanistan use depleted uranium (DU) in their weapons or armour;
(b) do Taliban or Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan use DU weapons or armour;
(c) do American or allied forces in Afghanistan use DU in weapons or armour;
(d) does Canada supply any other country with DU, and if so what are the quantities;
(e) does Canada supply any company, foreign or domestic, with DU and if so what are the quantities;
(f) if Canada does supply DU to American companies who manufacture DU weapons, what proportion of DU weapons manufactured in the US use Canadian created DU;
(g) does the Government believe that DU is a weapon with indiscriminate effect;
(h) does the Government believe that DU poses any long term health effects in areas where it is used;
(i) if DU is being used does the Government think that there is any possibility of future liability against Canada;
(j) do CF in Afghanistan use White Phosphorus (WP) as an antipersonnel weapon;
(k) do Taliban or Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan use WP as an antipersonnel weapon;
( l) do American or allied forces in Afghanistan use WP as an antipersonnel weapon;
(m) have Canadian troops trained to use WP as antipersonnel weapon in Afghanistan;
(n) does the Government consider WP to be a chemical weapon under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention;
(o) does the Government consider that WP is banned under Protocol II of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons?

I am committed to ensuring that those who suffer after exposure to depleted uranium receive justice.

Once again, thank you for emailing me. Best Wishes Dawn

Dawn Black, MP NDP Critic for Defence and Peace Advocacy
New Westminster-Coquitlam T: 613-947-4455 F: 613-947-4458
==================================
From: Jacob Rempel [mailto: yasch@shaw.ca ]
Sent: June 30, 2006 6:43 AM
To: Black, Dawn - M.P.; a
Subject: Munitions with Depleted Uranium - Each shell is a "dirty nuclear bomb" that sickens and kills forever - Much Worse Than 9/11

TO: Every Member of the House of Commons, and to friends: We have all read something about the use of depleted uranium in munitions used in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. We really need to take this seriously, to put an end to such barbarity. The following references are a small fraction of what is already known, and we need to broadcast all the information as widely as possible to bring heavy pressure on every government to end such murderous practice. The references in these links are about the effects in Iraq alone, and there are similar effects of our aggressive wars in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, and of course among soldiers who do their work where radioactive dust and vapour enters their air, water and food.

As well, the radioactivity spreads across borders, and remains in the environment for billions of years. The USA and Canada, and we the citizens, can be held responsible for terrible crimes against these countries and their people, against the earth and against all humanity.

...Jacob Rempel, Vancouver Kingsway yasch@shaw.ca
*********************
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.

"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that. "In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."

By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads.

Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=2374
http://www.umrc.net/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
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Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan by Doug Westerman May 3, 2006
Vital Truths and Information Clearing House

In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y., which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear physicist.

This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing more than 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over 100 million dollars.

Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe.

People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan:
"Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types.

The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer.
My wife has nine members of her family with cancer".

"Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common."

"We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters."

John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report " on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust " was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, "The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body."
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada.

PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies.

Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states: "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated: "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others "including Rokke himself" developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases."

Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases?

Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. "That's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way." According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact.

"The larger the bang, the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere," Falk said. "With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the micron size or smaller."

When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."

When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat " sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable.

Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported.

Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it normal?" The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on the following website
Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA."

Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the "Baghdad Diaries" wrote: "Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia."

"The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas."

This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it's 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq.

As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.

"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.

I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that.

"In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."
By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.

Dr. Hardan also states: "I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq." Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.

Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.

Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have medical problems.

Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms," and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted.

Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.

"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers.

If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.

The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month.

"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing.

In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects.

Dr. Durakovic's UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation.
"This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times.

"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said

"They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law."

(NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)

Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview.

The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?

"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.
It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust's crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading.

The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners.

Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours.

The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size.

For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.

"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. "Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.

"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.

Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan.

How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that "this could cause "500,000 potential deaths". This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a significant problem".

The AEA's calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq's total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq.

What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.

He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians?

Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers.

Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage.

She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill.

In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn"t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority?

The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes.

Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion.

In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.

FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN

Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England.

UMRC's Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.

Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before.

Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months.

In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. "We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination."

In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill.

How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: "The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population resents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium." In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq.

Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. "A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.

The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing.
------------------------------------
According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".

There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.

The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories.

UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers).

Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.

Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals.

CONCLUSIONS:

If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

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Some links: "Don't know what Depleted uranium is?
Read our Introduction to Depleted Uranium" tab.
http://www.cadu.org.uk/

Film about depleted uranium:
http://www.bsharp.net.au/
==============================================
Confident U.S. generals commit war crimes
Uranium as a force multiplier, by Bob Nichols
You are encouraged to write him at bob.bobnichols@gmail.com or DUweapons@gmail.com.

It always pays to listen, and to listen exactly, to what the senior U.S. military officials say about fighting wars. In 1991, Gen. Colin Powell sent 500,000 men with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, lots of 70-ton Abrams Tanks and other soldier equipment for a 100-hour war against a weak third world country – Iraq. It was called the Powell Doctrine and required a quick enemy defeat by “overwhelming force,” “defined goals” and an “exit strategy.”

Another George Bush, George Bush the second, sent only 145,000 troopers for the much more ambitious conquering and occupation of Iraq 12 years later. What changed?

Why send 355,000 fewer troopers for a much larger, tougher, sure to get you killed job? The American war policies did not change. The answer is that the Americans had millions of pounds of a deadly microscopic “helper” called depleted uranium as a “force multiplier” deployed in Iraq.

A force multiplier is a technological method to multiply the aggressiveness and lethality of an armed force. Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki of Ryukyus University in Okinawa, a physicist, stated publicly that the atomicity equivalent of the weaponized uranium gas deployed in Iraq by U.S. military forces is hundreds of thousands of times the radioactivity of the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

Marion Fulk, who started working on nuclear weapons more than 60 years ago during the Manhattan Project, says, “I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.” A leading scientist, Leuren Moret, speaking out on the use of depleted uranium today, says flatly, “Iraq is uninhabitable,” due to widespread radiation poisoning.

Uranium weapons are criminal violations of international and U.S. federal law in at least four ways. That is exactly what the U.S. military and politicians demanded be used in Iraq and Central Asia. Noted humanitarian and war crimes lawyer Karen Parker gives a simple four point test to determine that DU is illegal and a war crime and a crime against humanity. However, using the four point test as a weapons spec gives the Pentagon the super weapon they wanted. War crimes lawyers, in many ways, wrote the spec for Washington’s latest genocidal wonder weapon.

A weapon that:
strays off the field of battle.
lasts after the battle is over.
causes cancer and other major devastating diseases.
causes lethal harm to people and the environment, is an illegal weapon as determined by a U.N. body. In short, its use is a war crime.

DU, or so-called depleted uranium, fits the profile perfectly. The senior American military and political leadership had their super weapon. They then determined that the Iraqi people and others in Central Asia’s resource rich lands were in the way, had no right to live and had to go. They would be nuked by uranium munitions.

The American war planners knew and assumed that the U.S. soldiers were expendable commodities, like bullets. They would be nuked, too. As the famous American secretary of state, His Excellency Henry Kissinger, said, “Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

The American expeditionary forces purposefully used a long lasting genocidal weapon, uranium gas, in Iraq to decimate the Iraqi civilization. The Americans are still using this genocidal weapon more than 15 years later. It’s estimated that more than a million Iraqis died during the past 15 years from wars and sanctions. There were only about 24.4 million Iraqis to start with in 1991. The extermination minded American senior politicians and military leaders are nothing if not determined, ruthless and relentless.

As the brutal American Marines say, “Kill their ass and steal their gas.” The American privates and corporals, the so-called grunts, do not know they are included in the soon to be dead or maimed, because poison gas weapons are not controllable. The poison flies everywhere with the changing wind. Poison gas is very unpredictable. The grunts are “throw away soldiers.”

The Pentagon reported 320 tons of deadly, radiation-dispersing weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas weapons were deployed on the nearly defenseless Iraqis in 1991. Cancers and other diseases soared. Ever since the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August 1945, radiation dispersing uranium weapons have been war crimes and illegal.

Since the Americans are the world’s only “super power,” the world is in a quandary, wondering what to do to stop the Americans? The American generals and senior politicians are addicted to the incredible lethality and force multiplier properties of depleted uranium.

Uranium weapons deliver death and illness in a big way, forever. That makes non-nuclear countries fear the United States. The American politicians love it because they know fear is a great motivator.
Thousands of nuclear missiles remain on hair trigger alert, even today.

The lethal nuke birds can fly in 15 minutes. All world leaders know it. Just like that, they could die in a global thermonuclear war in which everybody dies or wishes they were dead.

After the U.S. nuked Japan in 1945 with large depleted uranium bombs wrapped around a tiny core of A-Bomb and H-Bomb devices, it did not take long for the U.S. monopoly on global thermonuclear weapons to evaporate into thin air and for nukes to proliferate like fleas on a dog. As the famed scientist Albert Einstein said, “There are no secrets.” Sure enough, soon Russia, China, France, England, Israel, Pakistan, India and probably others also possessed thermonuclear weapons.

A country has to have a nuclear reactor to start a nuclear weapons program. Big American companies were very anxious to peddle the multibillion dollar Goliaths or little baby “research” reactors all over the world. The only difference in them is how much atomic bomb making material each can produce in a year when set up right.

The big megawatt reactors can make the stuff for about 40 atom bombs a year. Indeed, that is their primary purpose. The highly subsidized, very expensive, very dirty “electrical power” the reactors heat water to make is effective political cover. The couch potato – dumbed down American public – does not see the reactors’ true purpose: atom bomb production.
More than 40 countries now have 430 reactors around the world. That means more than 40 countries can produce, or already have produced, global thermonuclear weapons.

The Pentagon wanted to be able to use radioactive uranium to kill and cause deadly cancers without the very noticeable boom of an actual atom bomb. The entire world was really down on the big atom bomb blasts on human populations. Still, the Americans exploded 1,200 atom bombs before Dr. Ernest Sternglass and others convinced the United States Senate to approve the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1962.

The amount of radiation released by the atomic bombs pales in comparison to the huge amount of permanent killing radiation released in Iraq. The total radioactive life span of uranium weapons is a majestically creepazoid 45 billion years. The Iraqis have a right to ask, “Why do the Americans hate us so? Why do the Americans want to exterminate us?”

Ordinary use of the big atom bomb was out. What were the U.S. political and military leaders to do? Answer: Go directly to the major radiation dispersing element in the atomic bombs and use it for radioactive munitions: dirty bullets, dirty shells and dirty bombs – depleted uranium. Problem solved. The military-industrial-congressional complex had their force multiplier back.

But, with budgetary battles and contending with those within the military who opposed Radiation Dispersing Weapons, it took decades to craft and develop the uranium munitions. Keep in mind that these are not “uranium covered” or “uranium tipped” or “weakly radioactive” weapons as Pentagon apologists, propagandists and other war promoters say they are. They lie. Uranium weapons in use today are machined from solid uranium.

The most plentiful metal in the atom bombs used to devastate Japan and warn the world about the trigger happy senior American leadership was so-called “depleted uranium.” It was five feet thick and only fractionally less radioactive than the feedstock uranium it came from.

DU would be ideal as a killer weaponized radioactive uranium gas fired in conventional weapons. A vanishing small percentage of the radioactive uranium in a hundred pounds of uranium is deadly enough to make atomic bombs; but it is all radioactive. Take one half of the tiny amount of bomb making stuff out and it is called “depleted uranium.” What a con, and hundreds of millions of Americans fell for it!

Thus, depleted uranium rounds, including bombs, were born. They were tested in various wars – field tests for new weapons – and configurations before the new genocidal munitions were ready for prime time in the 1991 Iraq “war” turkey shoot.

The Pentagon admitted to using 320 tons of DU – of weaponized uranium gas, aerosols and fragments – that left Iraq a cancer ridden radioactive wasteland. The genocide embracing American forces were not through with Iraq yet, though. They would be back.

The Americans have spent billions of dollars to set up and maintain a huge industrial operation to produce nuclear weapons of all kinds. This ranges from the publicly understood atomic bombs like those used on two Japanese cities’ civilian populations to the nuclear radiation dispersing bullets, shells, land mines, missiles and bombs. The uranium weapon as a force multiplier is alive and well.

Today, this vast industrial strength nuclear weapons establishment maintains four ammunition storage dumps in the U.S. and an unknown number around the world. Each of the U.S. ammo dumps in the U.S. is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have 22,000,000 pounds of actual uranium on hand in uranium munitions. When these huge war material centers move into high gear, they are a wonder of lethal industrial killing efficiency.

To maintain “Class 1” status, the ammo dumps must be able to ship 3.2 million pounds of weapons a day for 30 days. That can total 384,000,000 pounds of radioactive weaponized ceramic uranium oxide poison gas dispersing weapons per month.

George Bush the Second launched the “shock and awe” uranium bombing campaign against Baghdad and the remainder of Iraq in March of 2003. Within nine days, microscopic radioactive uranium oxide particles were detected in special high volume air filters in Aldermaston, England, some 2,700 miles away. Millions of pounds of uranium gas contaminated Baghdad yet again.

Government and university scientists estimated the five week uranium bombing campaign exposed hundreds of millions of people in Europe and Britain to tiny radioactive particles at the adult male lung dose rate of 23 million particles.

Cancers and other illnesses will follow, of course. For the first time in 41 years, the infant neonatal death rate is inching up. The tiniest babies die first. Tony Blair, the English prime minister, tried to ride the tiger too many times to no effect. The berserker Americans were uncontrollable. This is Bush’s true legacy.

Now, we really must listen to the war criminals in the senior American political and military leadership. The purpose of the illegal uranium weapons is to multiply the effectiveness of a smaller force by killing or maiming the enemy continuously, after the initial battle is over. The millions of pounds of radioactive ceramic uranium oxide gas and dust all over Iraq are a deadly virtual army – killing and maiming civilian Iraqi men, women and children continuously.

People have always thought wars against children are particularly gross.

That is not a problem for the American war machine planners at the Pentagon. Just look at what they do.

The radioactive virtual army secures the Iraqi homeland. The American war criminals are free to “redeploy” or ship the now radioactive, dying, constantly replaced American Army veterans to whatever little country is next – Iran, Syria or North Korea.

“Only” about 2,300 American troopers were sacrificed in the past three years in Iraq. Those deaths are acceptable to the American leadership. So were those of 250,000 Iraqis. They will move on and turn yet another country into radioactive rubble. The only real question is: “Who’s next?”
Some Americans think that all this just could not happen in America.

Foolish American intellectuals think that mere words without acts will deter the in-control American fascists. They simply do not understand that the old American Republic is dead and gone.

Now, in 2006, the United States is the most successful fascist empire, with the most lethal military, in the history of the world. The fascist government of war criminals and crooks must be put out as soon as possible, certainly before they invade Iran and use global thermonuclear weapons as promised and nuclear munitions again to do so. Words do not count in this arena, though, only actions.

Because, ultimately, these senior American generals and politicians must be cast out of office, tried and appropriately punished for committing these war crimes. It is the right thing to do. What America is doing to the world is wrong and criminal. All Americans are war criminals. We all bear responsibility – all 300 million of us.

There are at least six individuals, probably hundreds more, affiliated with the DOD, the CIA and the DOE who aggressively argue for the God given right of the American Expeditionary Forces to use deadly uranium weapons. These public relations masters work hand in glove with their programming counterparts in the big media to maintain the lie.

Since this article will only be seen in the SF Bay View newspaper, which goes all over the U.S. and the world, and on the Internet, it is fairly easy for these despised characters to publish continuous “feel-good” articles about these nuclear munitions. Already this series of anti-nuclear munition articles is sent by you, the readers, all over the country and the world. You must do more – always more.

Feel outraged? Helpless? Upset? Powerless? I do!

Do you want to stop these Americans from committing these war crimes? Then you must “be the media.” Do the only thing you can control. Tell your friends and neighbors about this. Just say, “The U.S. is using radioactive weapons and is destroying the world. What can we do to mess with them? Let’s do it.”

Working together, you will be able to figure out all manner of wildly inventive and cool things to do to stop this worldwide menace. The generals and politicians don’t stand a chance against a righteously angry American public. Just go ahead and do it. Don’t wait for permission. You are right! Don’t be timid! The whole world is watching.

Thank you for your time.

Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear war in Central Asia. He is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.

You are encouraged to write him at bob.bobnichols@gmail.com or DUweapons@gmail.com .

[Oscar]

Further comments by Jacob Rempel - July 26, 2006

I am amazed and shocked at the apparent indifference among our glorious leaders, and they're getting worse by every day.

When Dawn Black replied to me that she is aware and concerned, and that she is pursuing the issue in Parliament, I had to write her again to encourage her lone voice in the House of Commons.

However, I also wrote to to Dawn Black that "I must add that every MP should be speaking up on these issues, not just one MP in one party, just one MP (such as you) with a specific assignments to critique the government about Defence and Peace. The issue pervades all issues of government, all life. Every MP needs to speak for all of Canada in this matter of war and peace and war crimes."

Even our own government is now becoming implicated in war crimes as they send our soldiers into war under the command of US generals.

Don't they have children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews and cousins and friends with children and grandchildren? Do they not consider the well-being of future generations?

I have searched myself and my areas of knowledge and judgment to discover whether I may somehow be paranoid and stupidly anxiety-ridden about things that our governments and industry leaders may understand better than I do. After all, they hire the most educated consultants to help them make decisions, don't they?

However, I find that very many very sensible, very informed people are warning those of us who have ears to hear. I know they are right to warn us all, and we are right to carry on our campaigns to restore some sanity.

I remember as long ago as the days of Blakeney, one Bill Harding, Jim's father, debated Blakney, warning him about the endlessly deadly radioactive molecules coming out of the Saskatchewan mines. And how all the distribution and processing multiplies the hazards endlessly.

When scholarly persons and apparently decent leaders sell out to the mioptic captains of ever-expanding industry, I tend to despair.

Before that in Regina, the Rand family and the Shapiros and the Hardings organized the Committee against Radiation Hazards and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and we had Bertrand Russell on our side.

More recently, the First Nations and Orchard and Suzuki and church people in Saskatchewan blocked some uranium madness in Saskatchewan, in the seventies, I think. Can those groups be rallied again against the now greater evil forces?