StarHeart.US/War.html

Fisher House for physical therapy of wounded military

"<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0742540715/mysticbooksA/">Chaos and Violence: What Globalization, Failed States, and Terrorism Mean for U.S. Foreign Policy</A>" by Stanley Hoffman

"Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" by Jeremy Scahill

"Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks

Regardless of White House denial, ABC News and NBC News states that Iraq is in CIVIL WAR. - 27 Nov 06

Intervention Magazine

* "85% of the war victims I operated on were civilians. One-third of those were childern. Any war is a war against children." - from The Green Parrot: Diary of a War Surgeon

World Conflicts Today™ from CultureGrams

* "We can't humanize war. We can only abolish it." - Winston Churchill

Terrorism Research Center

* "We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace." - song

Campus Anti War Network

* "There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace." - Benjamin Franklin

Anti-War Voices from Montana

* "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953

Good Mourning, Vietnam: Pew, AP Probe Iraq Link

Psychologist: How can you explain the Nazi government's success in selling to the German people a ruinous poicy of aggression and rentless warfare?

Hermann Goering: No slob working on a farm wants war. You tell them they are being attacked and you discredit the pascifists for being traitors. This can work in any country.

- from The Nuremburg Diaries

World War II and the Holocaust could have been prevented IF Britain, France and America had gotten involved in the Spanish Civil War, in 1936-1939, to fight the fascists and nazis. See the documentary "Into the Fire" about the American women in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

In 2003, who primarily benefitted from the U.S. invasion of Iraq was Israel. Those $25,000 checks to the families of suicide bombers stopped.

* In 2006, who primarily benefits from the U.S. occupation of Iraq is Iran. Iran's former enemy is, now, much weaker and Iran is funding Shia insurgents in Iraq.

* I don't appreciate American troops dying for the benefit of Israel or Iran.

* The only part of the US Government that is "at war" is the U.S. Army and select portions of the U.S. Air Force. The rest of the government is NOT at war, and simply pursuing business as usual. Our war on terrorism is ineffective in the sense of capturing specific terrorists, and counter-productive in the sense of producing tens of thousands more, as Chomsky recounts in "Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy," citing RAND and other studies, 85% of the "foreign fighters" in Iraq were mobilized and radicalized by the US invasion of Iraq.

* The current White House Administration lied about the reasons to go to war with Iraq." - all 16 national security agencies, 28 Sep 2006

Tom Dispatch Interview: James Carroll on Our Post-9/11 World

Do you really want someone who kills, because of a cartoon, to have a nuclear bomb?

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

"There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it." - H. Havelock Ellis

Wesley Clark on Iraq

"An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot." - Thomas Paine

Bush Has "Flipped-Out" Over Anti-War Protestors

"They want you to die for your country, but they won't let you be who you are." - Margaret Cho

When President Lyndon Johnson saw that the Vietnam War was being lost, he over-rode the best advice he was getting that the war was a lost cause, and escalated the fighting with a massive infusion of troops and an expansion of the U.S. military. The only result was more killing of Vietnamese and Laotians, and more dying of American troops. President Nixon did the same thing. Instead of ending the war when he took over the presidency in 1968, he upped the ante again, eventually raising the number of US troops in Indochina to over half a million, doubling the number of Southeast Asians killed to over two million, and more than doubling U.S. casualties to an eventual 58,000 before the U.S. finally had to admit defeat.

SO OSAMA WALKS INTO TO THIS BAR, SEE?

by Greg Palast, August 14, 2006

So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says...

But wait a minute. I'd better shut my mouth. The sign here in the airport says, "Security is no joking matter." But if security's no joking matter, why does this guy dressed in a high-school marching band outfit tell me to dump my Frappuccino and take off my shoes? All I can say is, Thank the Lord the "shoe bomber" didn't carry Semtex in his underpants.

Today's a RED and ORANGE ALERT day. How odd. They just caught the British guys with the chemistry sets. But when these guys were about to blow up airliners, the USA was on YELLOW alert. That's a "lowered" threat notice.

According to the press office from the Department of Homeland Security, lowered-threat Yellow means that there were no special inspections of passengers or cargo. Isn't it nice of Mr. Bush to alert Osama when half our security forces are given the day off? Hmm. I asked an Israeli security expert why his nation doesn't use these pretty color codes.

He asked me if, when I woke up, I checked the day's terror color.

"I can't say I ever have. I mean, who would?"

He smiled. "The terrorists."

America is the only nation on the planet that kindly informs bombers, hijackers and berserkers the days on which they won't be monitored. You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to get a jump on George Bush's team.

There are three possible explanations for the Administration's publishing a good-day-for-bombing color guidebook.

1. God is on Osama's side.

2. George is on Osama's side.

3. Fear sells better than sex.

A gold star if you picked #3.

The Fear Factory

I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.

That's because Osama got what he wanted. There's no mystery about what Al Qaeda was after. Like everyone from the Girl Scouts to Bono, Osama put his wish on his web site. He had a single demand: "Crusaders out of the land of the two Holy Places." To translate: get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.

And George Bush gave it to him. On April 29, 2003, two days before landing on the aircraft carrier Lincoln, our self-described "War President" quietly put out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil. In other words, our cowering cowboy gave in whimpering to Osama's demand.

The press took no note. They were all wiggie over Bush's waddling around the carrier deck in a disco-aged jump suit announcing, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." But it wasn't America's mission that was accomplished, it was Osama's.

Am I saying there's no danger, no threat? Sure there is: 46 million Americans don't have health insurance. IBM is legally stealing from its employees' pension plan and United Airlines has dumped its pensions altogether. Four-million three-hundred thousand Americans were injured, made sick or killed by their jobs last year. TXU Corporation is right now building four monster-sized power plants in Texas that will burn skuzzy gunk called "lignite." The filth it will pour into the sky will snuff a heck of a lot more Americans than some goofy group of fanatics with bottles of hydrogen peroxide.

But Americans don't ask for real protection from what's killing us. The War on Terror is the Weapon of Mass Distraction. Instead of demanding health insurance, we have 59 million of our fellow citizens pooping in their pants with fear of Al Qaeda, waddling to the polls, crying, "Georgie save us!"

And what does he give us? In my own small town, the federal government has paid for loading an SUV with .50 caliber machine guns to watch for an Al Qaeda attack at the dock of the ferry that takes tourists to the Indian casino in Connecticut. The casino dock is my town's officially designated "Critical Asset and Vulnerability Infrastructure Point (CAVIP)." (To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Department of Homeland Security -- no kidding.)

But that's not all. Bush is protecting us from English hijackers with a fearsome anti-terrorist tool: the Virginia-class submarine. The V-boat was originally meant to hunt Soviet subs. But there are no more Soviet subs. So, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have "refitted" these Cold War dinosaurs with new torpedoes redesigned to carry counter-terror commandoes. That's right: when we find Osama's beach house, we can shoot our boys right up under his picnic table and take him out. These Marines-in-a-tube injector boats cost $2.5 billion each -- and our President's ordered half a dozen new ones.

Lynn Cheney, the Veep's wife, still takes in compensation from Lockheed as a former board member. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this multi-billion dollar "anti-terror" contract.

Fear sells better than sex. Fear is the sales pitch for many lucrative products: from billion-dollar sailor injectors to one very lucrative war in Mesopotamia (a third of a trillion dollars doled out, no audits, no questions asked).

Better than toothpaste that makes our teeth whiter than white, this stuff will make us safer than safe. It's political junk food, the cheap filling in the flashy tube. What we don't get is safety from the real dangers: a life-threatening health-care system, lung-murdering pollution production and a trade deficit with China that's reducing mid-America to coolie status. Protecting us from these true threats would take a slice of the profits of the Lockheeds, the Exxons and the rest of the owning class.

War on Terror is class war by other means -- to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace, the landlords of our nation give you fake protection from manufactured dangers. And they remind you to be afraid every time you fly to see Aunt Millie and have to give up your hemorrhoid ointment to the underpaid guy in the bell-hop suit with a security badge.

Oh, hey, you never got the punch line.
So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says, "Well, George, what are you serving today?" and Bush says, "Fear," and Osama shouts, "Fear for everybody!" and George pours it on for the crowd. Then the presidential bartender says, "Hey, who's buying?" and Osama points a thumb at the crowd sucking down their brew. "They are," he says. And the two of them share a quiet laugh.

*****

Greg Palast is the author of the just-released New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War" from which this is adapted. Go to www.GregPalast.com.

We should be listening to Prof. Juan Cole, not Shrub, Jr, about what the U.S. should do about the war in Iraq.

War Made Easy

" Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - General Herman Goering

Democracy Rising

57% of Americans don't feel this 2nd invasion of Iraq was worth it. - 5/1/05 poll by USA Today/CNN/Gallup

Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home

"You have made a desert and call it peace." - Tacitus on the Romans in Carthage

After Downing Street

"I believe in peace, but I'm not a pacifist." - Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State

Nuclear Threat Initiative

How to Deminish the Relentless Mideast Conflict and Save a Lot of Lives

Do what should have been done 60-years ago by the British-American joint effort:

1 - Relocate Israel to be centered along longitude 142 west.

2 - Have half of the New Israel's 10,000 square miles be obtained from western Yukon Province, Canada and the other half obtained from eastern Alaska State, USA. A port can be placed on the Gulf of Alaska.

"Children at War" - *Starred Review - "The rebels told me to join them, but I said no. Then they killed my smaller brother. I changed my mind," explains "L," age seven, in Singer's chilling study of the now-conventional use of children in modern warfare. Some 43 percent (157 of 366) of all armed organizations around the world--from Sierra Leone to Colombia, Sri Lanka to the Congo, Liberia to Sudan--use child soldiers, 90 percent of whom see battle. In the last decade, more than 2 million children have been killed in combat, a rate of some 500 per day. Singer, National Security Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, came upon the phenomenon when the soldiers he interviewed for his first book, Corporate Warriors (2003), told him of seeing so many child adversaries. Here he details many of the underlying causes of the practice, and he explains how the children are recruited, often simply by whether they are strong enough to carry a weapon. He explores the full implications for using children in combat and discusses how the problem can be addressed, such as treating it as a war crime and punishing those leaders responsible. He neglects to say, though, that the abuse is first and best addressed by exposing it to world scrutiny, which this thoughtful and heartfelt book will do." - Alan Moores, from Booklist

Q - "What's the difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War?

A - Bush had a plan for getting out of the Vietnam War!"

Oil & War

Mine Seeker

Silent Nuclear War

18 April 2006

Medical News: Silent Nuclear War

by International Medical Veritas Association

Many shocking reports now indicate that we have been fools thinking that what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan is happening only to the local populations over there. Few of us are even aware that the United States military has been using depleted uranium (DU) in its armaments and that tons of the stuff have been spilled all over the landscape in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Meaning the all powerful anti-human forces that be in the United States and England have found a way to go nuclear right under our very noses and the effects of that have already been spread around the globe, especially in the northern hemisphere.

The term “depleted” seems to give the impression that DU is
uranium that does not contain radioactivity any more, which is
not the case. DU ammunition can cause serious radioactive
contamination and is no less atrocious than nuclear weapons.
Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki

“Since 1991, the United States has staged four wars using depleted uranium weaponry, illegal under all international treaties, conventions and agreements, as well as under the US military law. The continued use of this illegal radioactive weaponry, which has already contaminated vast regions with low level radiation and will contaminate other parts of the world over time, is indeed a world affair and an international issue” wrote Leuren Moret who has worked at two US nuclear weapons laboratories as a geoscientist.[1]

What we are seeing in reality is an end to the reason of law and order. When presidents of constitutional democracies and the ruling elite behind him take it upon themselves to so blatantly, abandon the law we have both the seeds of anarchy and the deep roots of fascism combining to shape the world’s future in the most nasty of ways possible.

Depleted uranium weaponry meets the definition
of a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD).

It should come as no surprise that the federal government is breaking international laws against the use of such weapons. The culture of the United States government is deeply imbedded with the death and poisoning of its own citizens through vaccines, fluoridated drinking water, dangerous drugs and medical treatments backed with the full authority of the FDA and CDC. As well as poisoning of the food supply with the likes of aspartame and MSG, massive use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, genetically altered foods, and massive use of food preservatives, now the list includes the use of depleted uranium in armaments whose radioactive pollution will go on for a few billion years.

What you are about to read is a nightmare unmatched in the annals of human history outdistancing perhaps even the rising tide of mercury and the thousands of other toxic chemicals flooding the environment. We now stand threatened from both chemical and nuclear poisons with devastating consequences to public health. Through it all public health officials can only find the time to masturbate with viruses, closing down their consciousness to anything but their pet obsessions with things that often cannot even be proven to exist.

Depleted Uranium armaments are “the
perfect weapon for killing lots of people!”
Dr. Marion Fulk, Nuclear physical chemist, retired, Lawrence Livermore
Nuclear Weapons Lab and Manhattan Project

Uranium weapons have been increasingly employed in battle action since their first use by the US and UK forces in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Since then they have been used in the Balkans in the late 1990s, then Kosovo in 2000, in Afghanistan starting in 2002 and continuing into the present, and then in the 2nd Gulf War (GW2) in March and April 2003. The Army began arming tank, artillery and machine gun shells with depleted uranium in the 1980s. The term "depleted" is a misnomer since DU contains about 60% of the radioactivity found in natural uranium.

Pentagon has estimated that 320 tons of depleted uranium was fired by US and UK units in the first Gulf War. Some experts put the numbers as high as 800 tons. U.S. and British warplanes dropped about 31,000 DU shells of various calibers on Kosovo and Serbia during the 1999 bombing campaign. Approximately 2000 tons or more were detonated in the second gulf war.

350 tons of uranium is equal to about a kilogram of plutonium.
Dr. Chris Busby

In principle, using the Atomic Energy Control Board’s (AECB) regulatory limits, we can calculate that 0.1 micrograms of plutonium can overdose one person with maximum safe exposure limits being placed at .56 micrograms maximum full body exposure and .25 micrograms for lung exposure. “Experiments with beagle dogs suggest that about 27 millionths of a gram of insoluble plutonium would be sufficient to cause lung cancer in an adult human being with virtual certainty, with significant risks probably associated with far lower doses,” report International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.[2] According to the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) 0.1 grams would overdose one million people, a gram ten million, 100 grams one billion people and 600 grams six billion, the entire worlds’ population[3] if those 600 grams were implanted directly into people.

“A rapid release of one kilogram of plutonium at ground level in dispersible, inhalable form would cause a public health emergency of the first magnitude. Plutonium air concentrations could be on the order of hundreds of micrograms per cubic meter of air at one kilometer from the release site. Individuals breathing this air would inhale enough plutonium to cause cancer with certainty within minutes," said Dr. Edwin S. Lyman of the Nuclear Control Institute.

The Pentagon has misled the world with claims that its DU is safe. They have lied about depleted uranium no matter how many of their own soldiers get sick and die from it and from the toxic vaccines they administer in mega doses before troops are deployed into war theaters. The Pentagon has maintained that DU shells are safe because they contain only mildly radioactive uranium when in reality; depleted uranium also contains small amounts of plutonium and other highly radioactive elements.[4] Despite the authorities' attempt at concealment, the truth is out. The media has forgotten its responsibilities, and the public remains docile thus the military is contemplating getting away with more murder through nuclear weapons when it contemplates actions against Iran.

Thus we can begin to understand why Professor Katsuma Yagasaki stated that “The used amount of radioactive atoms of DU weapons dispersed into environment in the real wars was far beyond that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is estimated that in the First Gulf War, 320 to 800 tons of DU were used, scattering indeed 14,000 to 36,000 times more radiation than in Hiroshima.”

The Department of Energy has millions of tons of DU and using it in weapons saves the government a fortune on the cost of its disposal. What difference does it make if the use threatens millions with premature and terrible deaths with cancer? Such a terrible question fits like a glove to those who have planned for decades the use of such weaponry. Actually the official party line from the medical and military industrial establishments are simple, there is nothing to worry about from nuclear or chemical poisons, they are safe and you can go back to sleep trusting your children’s future to us.

The long-term effects from over a decade of DU exposure are emerging in southern Iraq and they are devastating. However, the increased amount of radioactive material used in Afghanistan (3 times greater than in Iraq in 1991) and Iraq in 2003 (6-10 times greater than 1991) will travel throughout a larger area and affect many more people than anyone has imagined. As we will see below the first evidence is in that contrary to the military’s belief that the radiation danger only extends for a few meters around impact points, scientists measured strong increases in radiation 2500 miles away in England within days of the American bombing in Iraq. The Americans are still using these munitions in Afghanistan and are itching to unleash a nuclear firestorm against Iran. Any war the United States fights today will be nuclear because all scenarios include DU armaments some of which contain more than a ton of uranium.[5]

Nuclear power plants are really dangerous facilities put
in practical use on stipulation that they can “completely seal
in radiation,” while radioactive weapons commit an impermissible
crime scattering radioactive materials in the environment.
Professor Katsuma Yagasaki

Since World War II accumulated radiation has incrementally increased the radiation burden to the global community. Nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power plants, and radiation accidents like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are steadily increasing the radiation contamination of the global environment. We cannot escape exposure because we breathe the air, drink the water and eat food from contaminated soils. Now the American and British governments have taken it upon themselves to increase this nuclear contamination thinking that these supremely powerful armaments will win wars quickly thus saving soldiers’ lives. But these soldiers are the first ones who come down with deadly diseases upon returning home giving us a chilling preview of what is in store for millions who are being exposed, only more slowly.

On impact, uranium penetrators burn fiercely to give an aerosol of sub micron diameter oxide particles which are largely insoluble and remain in the environment for many years. Dr Chris Busby

As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain. Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program.

When uranium burns into particles, it will enter human bodies ingested with drinking water and food, or inhaled with air. In this case, the whole radiation and chemical toxicity will be released in the body.
Professor Katsuma Yagasaki

According to Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki “DU dust-like particles can enter human bodies, and once taken into the body, they will become tens of millions times more hazardous. Newly released data indicate that low-level radiation is more likely to cause biochemical abnormalities than intensive high-level radiation.[6] It is wrong to make light of the hazard of low-level radiation.”[7] DU is a little different then other forms of radioactive material. It only emits alpha and beta radiation. A piece of paper will stop it. So the military feels comfortable lying about its danger. However, when it is in the lungs or elsewhere in the body, it is in contact with living tissue, bombarding that tissue with low level radiation for the rest of your life. That radiation will lead to cancers, genetic damage, a list of chronic diseases and eventual death.

Yagasaki continues saying, “One alpha particle passes hundred thousand atoms before it stops, blowing out hundred thousand electrons constituting a molecule. The destruction (ionization) of molecules will damage DNA, or will induce mutation in the cellular structure itself. There will be a great possibility of only one depleted uranium particle causing cancers and organ disorder. With the half-life of DU being 4.5 billion years, there will be almost no change in the rate of alpha emission 10,000 or 100,000 years later. This means once DU is inside the body, one will remain exposed to radiation as long as he/she lives unless it is discharged, while the environment continues to be polluted forever.”

In Afghanistan, where 800 to 1000 tons of depleted uranium was estimated to have been used in 2001, even uneducated Afghanis understand the impact these weapons have had on their children and on future generations.[8]

Nuclear war means clouds of fallout raining down on you and your children. Yes, that fallout, which your friendly government said would only travel a few meters in the battlefield, or only far enough to afflict the enemy and unfortunately, our own brave troops. “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.[9]

Physicians in Bosnia are seeing patients present for care with three simultaneous malignancies something never previously reported in medicine.

“The military know perfectly well that DU has all these effects, but they want to use it because it wins them the battles. It has actually destroyed tank warfare. Tanks are of no use any more, because they can come down with an A10 with a Gatling gun, fire these cheap bits of nuclear waste, and just wipe them out,” said Dr Chris Busby, Secretary at the European Committee on Radiation Risk and an international expert on low-level radiation.

The United States has fought four nuclear wars, and just this year has science started to show the fallout from these wars showing up far from the battlefields. The Sunday Times Online, on February 19, 2006, reported on a shocking scientific study authored by British scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan. Below is a graph from that study showing measurements of uranium taken over England, information that had to be pried with legal crowbars to be released. Notice the strong spike in radiation thousands of miles away at exactly the time of the second gulf war.

After the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Iraq in 2003, very fine particles of depleted uranium were captured with larger sand and dust particles in filters in Britain. These particles traveled in 7-9 days from Iraqi battlefields as far as 2400 miles away. The radiation measured in the atmosphere quadrupled within a few weeks after the beginning of the 2003 campaign, and at one of the 5 monitoring locations, the levels twice required an official alert to the British Environment Agency.
Within nine days of the start of the Iraq war on March 19, 2003, higher levels of uranium were picked up on five sites in Berkshire.[10]

London Times

This is such earth shattering information that many officials in England were immediately forced to move into denial mode. The Ministry of Defense refused to acknowledge the possibility of any connection between the use of atomic weaponry in Iraq and these readings in England saying the uranium was of a “natural origin” and there was no evidence that depleted uranium had reached Britain from Iraq. Perhaps there was a volcano eruption that went unnoticed or a flyby UFO with a radioactive tail; when it comes to the military any excuse but the truth will do.

According to Dr. Chris Busby and Dr. Saoirse Morgan, who forced the British government to release the above information[11] published in January of this year. “On the basis of the mean increase in uranium in air of about 500nBq/m3 we use respiration data on standard man to calculate that each person in the area inhaled some 23 million uranium particles of diameter 0.25 microns. As far as we know, this is the first evidence that uranium aerosols from battle use have been shown to travel so far.” In their earth shaking report they make it clear that the “evidence from the present analysis is implicit in the results; i.e. the increases found clearly demonstrate that the uranium particles are capable of long distance travel.”[12]

Busby and Morgan continue saying, “Despite many pieces of evidence that the uranium aerosols are long lived in the environment and are able to travel considerable distances, this is the first evidence as far as we know, that they are able to travel thousands of miles. The distance traveled from Baghdad to Reading following the wind patterns implicit in the pressure systems at the time is about 2500 miles. Although this transport may be hard to believe at first, the regular desert sand events which occur in the UK should teach us that the planet is not such a large place, and that with regard to certain long lived atmospheric pollutants, no man is an island.”

The U.S. government has not released any information about the levels of radioactivity being observed in the U.S. and the controlled media in Europe and the U.S. has said nothing about the 4 genocidal nuclear wars the United States and it’s British ally have foisted off on the populace of the world.

Depleted Uranium munitions is one of the greatest depopulation weapons ever deployed and by design is leading to the permanent contamination of the Middle East and Central Asia with radioactive uranium, which destroys the genetic future of the populations living in those regions. It is unrealistic to think that the designers of these munitions have not tested for the reality of the radioactive contamination meaning they must have known that radiation would have been put up high into the atmosphere to be swept around the globe. Radioactive substances have been studied intensively for over five decades and we all grew up with the fear of atomic warfare. Little did we know that the nuclear industry would find a way to use their waste materials profitably creating nuclear weaponry that would haunt the planet virtually forever.

After traveling 2,500 miles if the exposure to the English was 23 million uranium particles it is anyone guess the amount of fallout that reached the United States. Odds are that everyone in the northern hemisphere was contaminated to one degree or another.

The American and British governments say depleted uranium is relatively harmless. They also stand behind the use of mercury in medicine and dentistry saying mercury is relatively harmless as well. The list goes on. Be prepared for the CDC to ignore this or when all hell breaks loose and lung cancer cases spike upward you will see them pretend it is another genetic epidemic like they thought autism was for a while. Now they just simply scratch their heads at anything they cannot blame on a virus. It is absolutely pathetic that medical and health officials at the CDC and other international agencies are spending all their resources scaring the heck out of the public about the bird flu and influenza virus, as millions are threatened with nuclear and chemical poisons.

DU is the stuff of nightmares.

This whole thing is a crime against God and humanity.
Dr. Doug Rokke

Army health physicist

In 1991, Dr. Doug Rokke was assigned to the command staff of the 12th Preventive Medicine Command to clean up some of the mess left after uranium armaments were used. Today, in poor health, he has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts and kidney problems and blames his health problems on exposure to DU. Dr. Rokke and his primary team of about 100 performed their cleanup task without any specialized training or protective gear. Today, Rokke said, at least 30 members of the team are dead, and most of the others have serious health problems. Rokke said: "Verified adverse health effects from personal experience, physicians and from personal reports from individuals with known DU exposures include reactive airway disease, neurological abnormalities, kidney stones and chronic kidney pain, rashes, vision degradation and night vision losses, lymphoma, various forms of skin and organ cancer, neuropsychological disorders, uranium in semen, sexual dysfunction and birth defects in offspring.

"Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense reports have said that the consequences of DU were unknown. That is a lie. We warned them in 1991 after the Gulf War, but because of liability issues, they continue to ignore the problem." Rokke worked until 1996 for the military, developing DU training and management procedures. The procedures were ignored, he said. "Their arrogance is beyond comprehension. We have spread radioactive waste all over the place and refused medical treatment to people . . . it's all arrogance.”[13]

The U.S. Army quietly placed an order for $38 million in depleted uranium rounds last week, bringing the total order from a West-Virginia based company to $77 million for fiscal year 2006.[14]

This would be fine if this all were a fantasy, but the Pentagon uses depleted uranium in its rounds because they say it is extremely effective in penetrating heavy armor. It’s the same kind of consciousness that put poisonous chemicals in our water supplies and toothpaste (fluoride) that we give to our kids, that has the military using armaments that are releasing vast amounts of nuclear material with a half life of only 4.5 billion years. Now if anyone can be accused of playing God it is these people. No language on earth has developed words to express the ultimate in death worship of that kind, which would release poisonous radiation on the earth that will keep moving through the environment and into all living systems for millions of generations to come.

Brent North Sea crude oil was traded at 70.20 dollars a barrel for the first time on Thursday evening due to simmering tensions of Iran nuke issue.[15]

April 14, 2006

Evil does not quite cover this disgusting travesty of human consciousness. Modern psychology has tragically missed the boat when it comes to warning us about the effects on the mind of the super wealth and power achieved by a few in the past 100 years. Those who doubt that these very same people could have, and would have destroyed the World Trade Centers, should understand how small such a thing was in comparison to blanketing the earth with lethal radiation. If the world allows President Bush to go to war against Iran, humanity will learn a lesson cruel in dimension and scope. We are on the brink, closer than any of us think, and people who are beyond all madness and terrorism are at the helm of the world.

If there ever was a time for humanity to pour out into the streets in protest its now. No more war, no more use of uranium armaments, and no more big government. The governments that we have allowed to grow to monstrous proportions by their very nature are lessons in uncontrolled destruction. Its not enough to stop Bush now, we have to stop the people and corporations behind him and only the most massive display of our humanity is going to stand a thread of a chance of effecting necessary changes. Darkness greater than anything the earth has known is right around the corner. The peace movement should combine with environmentalists and health activists to raise a human storm never seen before, one strong enough to topple governments who choose the path of insanity over humanity.

Defense officials said they have no plans to phasing out the use of DU munitions or a ban on its use.[16]

According to the Associated Press,[17] a Pentagon-sponsored team of experts determined in May 2003 that two small trailers were not used to make biological weapons. Yet two days after the team sent its findings to Washington in a classified report, Bush declared just the opposite. "We have found the weapons of mass destruction," Bush said in an interview with a Polish TV station. "We found biological laboratories." Is this the man we trust with the fate of the world, or with anything else for that matter? If we do not stop him and his ‘whole team,’ and make it perfectly clear to the Israeli government as well that nuclear war is not an option against Iran, we will collectively face a possible consequence that will have us being sorry we ever brought our children to this planet. If peace does not rain on earth now it will be war, nuclear war, for that is the only kind of war that will be fought by America and its allies. Depleted uranium nuclear armaments have been classified as conventional weapons so there is no way for American forces to avoid their use.

With little progress in resolving the dispute with Iran through diplomacy — the option of turning to air strikes is unlikely to go away.[18] New York Times April 16, 2006

Physicians for Social Responsibility examined the risks of a more advanced buster-bunker weapon, and it eerily tabulated the toll from an attack on the underground nuclear facility in Esfahan, Iran. “Three million people would be killed by radiation within two weeks of the explosion, and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, would be exposed to increased levels of cancer-causing radiation,” according to a summary of that study in the backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Although many of the world’s cities have recently experienced the horrors
of terrorism, the damage they have suffered is minuscule compared to what may lie ahead. What if a terrorist organization obtained nuclear weapons asks International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War? Some point to the fact that Iran supports terrorism, which is true, and thus should not be allowed to go nuclear. But there is no larger or greater terrorist organization than the American military and government and the corporations that dominate from behind the scenes.

Throughout the 1950s the military detonated A-bombs
above-ground at the Nevada Test Site, showering
downwind civilian populations with radioactivity.

They are the last people anyone should trust when it comes to anything nuclear related.

This war on terrorism is simply the projection of the greatest terrorists the world has ever seen. Many conspiracy theorists feel that these huge government organizations are actually behind many of the terrorist acts -used by them to provoke widespread fear and fuel their march toward global fascism and the destruction of everything we hold dear. So great is their power and their evil there is little chance they can be stopped. They are so used to doing harm to people that it has become second nature to them. They hardly give it a thought; certainly they are incapable of seeing the wrong in what they do.

The New York Times printed on April 18, 2006, “When it comes to the fundamental human principles of freedom, liberty and justice, China is in the Dark Ages.”[19] This is an example of the kind of projection, or in this case semi-projection[20] that the American media belts out. America herself has done so many ugly things to its own people and to the world these past five decades and is heading down the slippery slope of fascism. We already know that America hosts the largest prison populations in the world. Freedom, liberty and justice is going down like the Titanic in America and all bets are on for America starting a nuclear war in Iran that will include more than ‘just’ depleted uranium weapons. Fascists and fanatics have to have their wars and some of the greatest ones who have ever lived are at the heads of the governments most involved in the present crisis.

---------------------------------
[1] In 1991 she became a whistleblower at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab, and since then has worked as an independent citizen scientist and radiation specialist in communities around the world, and contributed to the UN subcommission investigating depleted uranium. She is on the organizing committee of the World Committee on Radiation Risk (WCRR), an organization of independent radiation specialists including members of the radiation committee in the EU Parliament - European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR). She is an Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley. Her investigation of depleted uranium particle size formed under high temperature conditions on the battlefield is a critical depleted uranium issue. The production of particles in very high concentrations and numbers results in the permanent suspension of depleted uranium particulate matter in the atmosphere. This has been ignored, but is a major contributor to adverse health effects caused by DU
exposure. [see Letter to Congressman McDermott - http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-Gen-Groves21feb03.htm]. [2] Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Plutonium, Deadly Gold of the Nuclear Age, International Physicians Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1992, page 148
[3] Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility http://www.ccnr.org/max_plute_aecb.html
[4] The Pentagon, NATO and the British Ministry of Defense have always downplayed the danger of DU saying it was "less radioactive than uranium ore." But at least half of the DU (250,000 metric tons) is now known to have been left over from the reprocessing of irradiated reactor fuel (done to extract weapons-grade plutonium), leaving it salted with fission products, according to USA Today, June 25, 2001. "If it has been through a reactor, it does change our idea on depleted uranium," says Dr. Michael Repacholi of the World Health Organization, which has demanded to know how much plutonium is in DU ammunition. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is still working on an answer to that question. According to the New York Times, Feb. 14, 2001, as early as January 2000, the DOE admitted that its DU munitions are spiked with plutonium, neptunium and americium – "transuranic" (heavier than uranium) fission wastes from inside nuclear reactors.(19) The health consequences here are fearsome: americium -- with a half-life of 7,300 years -- decays to plutonium-239, which is more radioactive than the original americium. DU "contains a trace amount of plutonium," said the DOE’s Assistant Secretary David Michaels, who wrote to the Military Toxics Project's Tara Thornton January 20, 2000. "Recycled uranium, which came straight from one of our production sites, e.g. Hanford [Reservation, in Richland, Washington], would routinely contain transuranics at a very low level...." Michaels wrote. "We have initiated a project to characterize the level of transuranics in the various depleted uranium inventories," he said. Dr. Von Hippel says in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that plutonium-239 is 200,000 times more radioactive than U-238. Plutonium "is probably the most carcinogenic substance known," according to Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER, writing in his 1992 book Plutonium.
[5] The widely-used Lockheed Martin GBU-28 5,000 lb. 'bunker-buster' bomb with a BLU-109 penetrator head carried only by the Air Force's F-15E's and B-2s, contains 1.5 metric tons of depleted uranium.
[6] The Petkau effect: discovered by Abram Petkau at the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment, Manitoba, Canada in 1972 Dr. Petkau discovered that at 26 rads per minute (fast-dose rate) it required a total dose of 3,500 rads to destroy a cell membrane. However, at 0.001 rad per minute (slow dose rate), it required only 0.7 rad to destroy the cell membrane. The mechanism at the slow-dose rate is the production of free radicals of oxygen (O2 with a negative electrical charge) by the ionizing effect of the radiation. The sparsely distributed free radicals generated at the slow-dose rate have a better probability of reaching and reacting with the cell wall than do the densely crowded free radicals produced by fast-dose rates.
[7] Uranium burns intensely when heated in the air, and it spontaneously ignites when it becomes dust. This is why DU shells, hitting the target, burn in intense fire upon impact and by the heat created. As long as they stay “outside the body even after becoming particles,” they are not very hazardous. Although the whole alpha rays disintegrate into a size that can effectively be emitted out of the particles, the detected radiation dosage will be far less than the actual dosage, because alpha particles are blocked by environmental substances. Even when emitted over the human body, alpha rays will not go through the skin, slightly affecting the internal organs. In the case of DU existing outside the human body, the exposed dose measured per weight will be low. The nature of slow decay and this is why such DU is considered to be “low-level radioactive,” with its danger often underestimated. This holds true only for the case of DU remaining outside bodies, and it in no way
represents the actual danger DU can pose to human bodies.
[8] "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."
(Jooma Khan of Laghman province, March 2003)
[9] Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York. “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.” “The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” wrote Bernklau. “He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, (it) ... is far too big to hide or to cover up!” “Terry Jamison, Public Affairs Specialist, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, at the VA Central Office, recently reported that ‘Gulf Era Veterans’ now on medical disability, since 1991, number 518,739 Veterans,” said Berklau.
http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml
[10] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2047373,00.html
[11] An international expert on low level radiation, Busby serves as an official advisor on several British government committees, and co-authored an independent report on low level radiation with 45 scientists, the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), for the European Parliament. He was able to get Aldermaston air monitoring data from Halliburton /AWE by filing a Freedom of Information request using a new British law which became effective January 1, 2005; but the data for 2003 was missing. He obtained the 2003 data from the Defence Procurement Agency.
[12] Thus it is clear that just under half the total mass of the uranium oxide consists of particles smaller than the wavelength of visible light, particles whose behaviour may be taken to approximate to that of a gas. Therefore the dispersion of such material may be expected to be similar to the dispersion of radioactive gases from nuclear accidents like the Chernobyl accident. It is merely a question of examining airflow patterns to see if air from Iraq could have reached the UK and Europe. And research showed that meteorological conditions at the time of the initial bombing were anomalous, and such that there was probably airflow from Iraq to Europe.
[13] http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml
[14] http://rawstory.com/news/2006/U.S._signs_38_million_deal_for_0302.html
[15] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/14/content_4424029.htm
[16] http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=36500
[17] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush_iraq;_ylt=- -
[18] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/washington/16assess.html?_r=1
April 16, 2006
[19] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/opinion/18tue1.html?_r=1&th&em
[20] Semi projection is the case where what is true in the other is also true in our self. Projection is the case where what we see in others is not there at all just inside of ourselves.

What’s At Stake?
a message from Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General

George W. Bush and his principal officials are the greatest threat to world peace, to human rights, to economic justice, to the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law that the American people and the world at large face today. His personal, unilateral war of aggression has wrecked Iraq, taken 250,000 lives or more, created tensions worldwide and significantly isolated the United States, costing us international friendships, trust, respect and alliances. War of aggression was judged to be “the Supreme International Crime” by the Nuremberg Tribunal.

Proclaiming himself the “Decider,” President Bush insists he decides what is right. He threatens North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, and most critically at the moment, Iran. The threats themselves violate international law and the U.N. Charter. His threats are made real by his personal record of false claims followed by arbitrary acts including the criminal aggression against and occupation of Iraq with its painful consequences just beginning for Iraq and the world. The additional U.S. military costs approach a trillion dollars and the occupation stretches the limits of U.S. military capacity. Yet he has ordered detailed plans for attacks on Iran that he could order to be executed as early as this summer. He may believe some radical action can save his presidency.

Iran has more than three times the population of Iraq. It was not debilitated by the Gulf War which cost Iraq more than 150,000 lives and destroyed its basic infrastructure. Thirteen years of sanctions, from Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1990 to “Mission Accomplished” Day “ending” the war of aggression against Iraq announced from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln by President Bush on May 1, 2003, cost Iraq 1 million lives, half children under the age of five. Iraq suffered near total isolation. Without international commerce, or the ability to rebuild, Iraq’s economy was devastated. It suffered physically and psychologically from frequent punitive bombings by U.S. aircraft throughout the sanctions period. Iran’s economy and power fueled by its oil, grew steadily through all these years.

Click here to help Impeach Bush.

Nothing could unify Iran like a military strike against it by the U.S. Few acts could better convince Muslims worldwide that George Bush is on a crusade against them. Iran with its long border with Iraq could radically alter political alignments and the level of conflict in Iraq and serve as an open conduit for fighters from many nations. Violence could spread from Egypt to neighboring Pakistan and beyond.

The Geneva Conventions prohibit assaults on “inherently dangerous” facilities, which would threaten civilian populations. Nuclear power plants are the prime example. Iran has a right to develop such plants. The Shah had ambitious plans 30 years ago, well financed and advanced, to construct nuclear plants across Iran to replace depleting oil reserves. Iran is six years or more away from the ability to build nuclear warheads if that is its purpose. The U.S. could incinerate Iran with a single launch from its worldwide land, sea and air nuclear missile capacity in place and alert today. Iran knows this. Surely it is better to seek to stop threatening and start seeking better relations and understanding with Iran and other nations that may be hostile.

Aside from the criminal nature of an attack on Iran, further aggressions by George Bush could put the United States in a rapid decline in international standing, economically and military on the defense, globally and at home.

This is only to suggest what might happen if George Bush remains President. The immediate question is whether We, the People of the United States of America, believe the future of our country is a spectator sport, or whether we will be players.

Will we let George Bush decide the fate of the nation?

Have his judgment and actions been acceptable?

With thirty-two months remaining in his Presidency, George Bush can inflict greater, even devastating injury on our people and the poor of the rest of the planet. He has squandered the largest federal surplus in history and created the largest national debt with his determination to be a War President and his ambition to enrich the rich.

He continues increasing military expenditures including the unlawful development of a new generation of nuclear weapons and a “Star Wars” shield for the U.S., insuring an arms race and increasing the probability of war.

His threats against other governments have strengthened opposition to the U.S. throughout the Muslim world, Latin American, former Soviet Union bloc countries, China, Africa and even West Europe.

President Bush’s tax cuts and “Free Trade” pressures have accelerated the concentration of wealth in oligarchies at home and abroad and further impoverished the poor. Nearly 1/3 of his tax cuts have gone to the top one percent of the population. When his estate tax cuts take hold the top one percent of the population will receive 40% of his tax cuts.

The number of billionaires is increasing rapidly while incomes of workers and the poor decline and organized labor continue to decline. And tax cuts combined with increased military expenditures and increasing deficits in balance of payments which make the U.S. the largest debtor nation are compelling cuts in federal expenditures for health care, education, social security, Medicare, humanitarian foreign aid and other needed programs for the poor. The real income of college graduates fell more than 5% from 2000 to 2004 under President Bush, eroding the middle class while concentrating wealth in the few. The richest ten percent of the population received more than half of all his tax cuts benefits.

But the concentration of wealth is accelerating most rapidly in the top 1/100th of one percent, about 30,000 individuals. The rise in income of these very rich has been astronomical. Just look at the growing number of billionaires and the bonuses and stock options of corporate CEO’s.

President Bush’s contempt for human rights and civil liberties is unprecedented in the American Presidency. He is not only above international law, he is above the Bill of Rights. He can arrest and detain people worldwide, including U.S. citizens, as enemy combatants. He condones torture. He wiretaps U.S. citizens and foreigners alike without court approval. Proclamations concerning his Presidential powers by his Attorneys General, Ashcroft and Gonzales, have stunned the international community. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo now symbolize U.S. regard for human dignity. Yet George Bush proclaims himself the champion of freedom and democracy!

Katrina is only one measure of the incompetence and indifference of the Bush Administration. Secretary of State Rice has acknowledged thousands of mistakes in Iraq without acknowledging the greatest mistake: the unilateral criminal invasion and occupation.

President Bush adheres ideologically to the belief that global warming is not caused in major part by the ever increasing human consumption of oil and other hydrocarbons.

He believes he can bully the world into accepting his way and the American people into accepting his decisions as right. For him, his ideology is truth. He professed to believe, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Because Iraq was "evil," and the U.S. is free and democratic, he believes Iraq should be controlled by the U.S. Iran is racing to develop nuclear weapons in his view, because of its dangerous hatred for freedom and democracy and must be stopped by force now. His truth translated into force has done more to damage freedom and democracy at home and abroad than all the “evil empires” he threatens. For him, his tax cuts, free trade policies and deficits benefited the poor and lower income groups most, if not in dollars, because his ideology holds that when the oligarchy rule, all will fare better.

The imperative need is action now. We cannot risk delay.

If the American people fail to impeach George Bush and his principal officials for his war of aggression, the world can only see the American people as either powerless, or supportive of it. If he is charged only, or primarily, with misleading, or lying to the American people, the world can only believe the American people will accept mass murder if it is not lied about.

Why should any other nation refrain from Wars of Aggression against oil rich states and others unable to defend themselves if they believe they can win and get away with it, while the U.S. proceeds with impunity with its threats and attacks?

Impeachment is essential to the integrity of constitutional government. It is the most urgent duty of the American people. We have the power to cause impeachment, if we have the will. Do your part now! Participate and contribute to the Constitutional Crusade to Impeach George Bush. Click here to make a donation.

Ramsey Clark
May 3, 2006

* New aspect of Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings exposure revealed. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the White House exposure of Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates was intended to retaliate against the CIA's work in limiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. WMR has reported in the past on this aspect of the scandal. In addition to identifying the involvement of individuals in the White House who were close to key players in nuclear proliferation, the CIA Counter-Proliferation Division prevented the shipment of binary VX nerve gas from Turkey into Iraq in November 2002. The Brewster Jennings network in Turkey was able to intercept this shipment which was intended to be hidden in Iraq and later used as evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence sources revealed that this was a major reason the Bush White House targeted Plame and her network. - Wayne Madsen

* CIA counter-proliferation network prevented a WMD "salting" operation by Bush White House in Iraq.

* In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and 1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was established in 1987 - The Carlyle Group.

U.S. intelligence sources have also confirmed that Israeli military officers served unofficially with the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Baghdad. The Israelis were attached to the J2X (Joint Intelligence Liaison) in Baghdad. Their presence in Baghdad, according to the sources, was kept secret.

* When was Judy Miller in Iraq?
VX was to be planted in Iraq and "discovered" by US troops AND Judy Miller. She was there April/May 2003. The shipment was allegedly stopped in late 2002. That would put her in a position to "discover" the warheads.

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor

"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide" by Samantha Power

British army torture tactics are nothing new, says Adams

For every $1 that the U.S. Government spends on education, it spends $7 on military expenditure.

Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@

The Spanish government backed the US-led invasion of Iraq last year despite polls showing 90% opposition to it from the Spanish public.

F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies

What Would Buddha Do? Why Won't the Dalai Lama Pick a Fight?

How America Created a Terrorist Haven

World Terrorism Knowledgebase

New York Attack - One silver lining on the dark cloud of the upcoming War Against Terrorism, I predict will be a cutback on the wasteful expenses on the War Against Drugs.

Blowback Third World Traveler

In Iraq: the NORTHERN No Fly Zone is by UN Resolution, but the SOUTHERN No Fly Zone never had one.

Rwanda, Uganda Troops Battle In Congolese City

by Todd Pitman, August 15, 1999

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan and Ugandan troops exchanged heavy machinegun fire in the rebel-held city of Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where street-fighting raged late into Sunday night, rebel officials and witnesses said.

Witnesses contacted in Kisangani by satellite phone told Reuters that heavy fighting between the two armies, which each support rival rebel factions in a war against the Congolese government, broke out around 1300 GMT at the city's main international airport. It spread quickly throughout the town.

Witnesses said hundreds of troops were involved. There were no immediate details of casualties from the Sunday fighting.

Officials from both countries, who have traditionally been strong allies but differ on how to conduct the year-old rebellion, were tight-lipped about the fighting but privately accused each other of sparking the clashes.

"There is still heavy fighting going on. We can hear mortar shells landing and heavy gunfire,"
said one source pinned down late Sunday in a house in the river town in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The situation is confused and we don't have the details, but shooting is going on right now," General Jeje Odongo, the Ugandan army commander, said from the Ugandan capital Kampala.

"There's been a lot of fighting but we've been working extremely hard to resolve this," said Patrick Mazimhaka, Rwanda's minister of state in the presidency.

Sunday's fighting follows a series of gunbattles fought in the city last weekend between Rwandan-backed rebels from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and Ugandan troops who support a splinter faction led by Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who was ousted from the group's leadership in May.

Rebel officials said the latest round of hostilities in Kisangani began Saturday night when Ugandan soldiers exchanged artillery rounds and fought a brief battle with Rwandan troops at the city's main airport. One Rwandan and several Ugandans were wounded in this clash.

Officials said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was due to hold urgent talks with
Rwanda's powerful Defense Minster Paul Kagame Monday to try to end the fighting.

Bizima Karaha, security chief of one faction of the Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), blamed Ugandan troops for starting the skirmish.

"Ugandans attacked Rwandese positions at the main airport and in the city. There's been a lot of fighting and a lot of casualties," Karaha said from the eastern Congolese town of Goma.

Both Rwanda and Uganda have sent hundreds of reinforcements to Kisangani where tensions have steadily risen over the last few days, witnesses said.

The latest fighting follows visits to the town by Zambian and South African diplomats trying to determine which of the rebel factions should sign a peace accord brokered on July 10 in Lusaka and signed by six African governments.

Karaha said Ugandan troops launched the attacks because they want to show that dia Wamba controlled the town and not Congolese forces backed by Rwanda.

Global Weapons Sells Decline
U.S. report by Tim Loughran

WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Conventional weapons sales to developing nations fell last year in dollar terms to the lowest levels since 1991 amid intense price competition in the arms trade and budget constraints in the developing world, an official U.S. report said.

"Competition...continues to intensify among major weapons suppliers" while "the limited resources of most developing nations...continues to place constraints on significant expansion of the arms trade," said Richard F. Grimmett, author of a report released this week by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress.

"The overall level of the arms trade is likely to remain fairly static in the foreseeable future, not approaching the sales levels of the Cold War or Persian Gulf War periods," said Grimmett.

Agreements from the top arms-producing nations to sell weapons across the developing world totaled $13.2 billion last year, down from about $16.5 billion in 1997. The value of arms deliveries fell to $23.2 billion, from $29.7 billion in 1997, the CRS said.

The United States was the biggest seller and Saudi Arabia the largest weapons procurer in the developing world last year, according to the report. The United States exported weapons to the developing world valued at $4.6 billion in 1998, up from $2.6 billion in 1997.

The United Arab Emirates and Malaysia were the developing world's second- and third-largest weapons procurers. China saw its sales of conventional weapons to developing nations drop to about $500 million, from $1.6 billion in 1997, reflecting the widespread view that Chinese weaponry "is less advanced and sophisticated than weaponry available from Western suppliers and Russia," said the CRS.

Still, China may be increasing sales of missile technology to developing nations, including Pakistan, Iran and North Korea, to boost its hard currency reserves, the CRS reported. France and Germany were the second- and third-largest providers of weapons to developing nations in 1998, displacing Russia, which fell to fourth place from second place in 1997.

In the three years ended 1998, Russia sold $15 billion in weapons, including aircraft, missiles, artillery, tanks and small weapons, to developing nations, roughly equivalent to those sold by the United States in that period. France's sale of 30 Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets to the UAE and Germany's sale of offshore patrol boats to Malaysia helped push them to the front ranks of weapons exporters last year, the report said.

Russian weapons sales to developing nations fell in part of lost subsidies for military exports after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the report said.

Weapons sales to developing nations from Britain fell to $200 million in 1998, down from more than $1 billion in 1997. Italy saw its military sales to developing nations fall to $100 million last year from $300 million in 1997.

REUTERS 08-07-99

Child death rate doubles in southern, central Iraq

NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters Health) -- Children under the age of 5 living in central and southern Iraq are dying at twice the rate found 10 years ago, according to a report from the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The findings "reveal an ongoing humanitarian emergency," according to UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.

The UNICEF survey, the first study of child and maternal mortality in Iraq since 1991, was conducted between February and May of this year with cooperation from the Government of Iraq, local authorities and the World Health Organization.

As a result of the findings, UNICEF recommends that the international community provide additional funding for humanitarian efforts.

The UN agency also recommends that the Government of Iraq expedite implementation of targeted nutrition programs, and that the Government of Iraq and the UN Sanctions Committee give priority to contracts for supplies that would directly impact the well-being of children.

Central and southern Iraq holds 85% of the country's population. In those regions, the mortality rate for children under 5 more than doubled, from 56 deaths per 1000 live births in 1984-1989 to 131 deaths per 1000 live births in 1994-1999. The rate of deaths among children in their first year increased from 47 per 1000 live births to 108 per 1000 live births during the same time frames.

In contrast, in the autonomous northern region of Iraq, where the UN conducts a humanitarian relief operation, the death rate for children under 5 declined from 80 deaths per 1000 live births in 1984-1989 to 72 deaths per 1000 live births in 1994-1999. The report also reveals that children in rural areas of Iraq have higher mortality rates than children in urban areas, and boys under the age of 5 have a slightly higher mortality rate than girls of the same age.

In a statement, UNICEF says that it recognizes that economic sanctions are used to promote peace and security. "But our concern is that whenever sanctions are imposed they should be designed and implemented in such a way as to avoid a negative impact on children," Bellamy said.

Bellamy noted that if the reduction in child mortality in Iraq throughout the 1980s had continued through the 1990s, half a million fewer children under the age of 5 in Iraq would have died between 1991 and 1998.

A lot of American gold was parked in British banks, so when The Great War broke out between Germany against France and Britain, the U.S. sent it's Expeditionary Force to Europe to protect that American gold. By the way... America first offered the gold to the German Central Bank before the war, but the Germans said they didn't need it.

You know that speck of an almost island that China and Viet Nam are currently squabbling over, because of all the offshore oil fields within a 200-mile radius? Well, that was the main reason the U.S. got involved in Viet Nam when the French troops pulled out. So many American, Vietnamese and Cambodian lives were lost, because the American Government was doing the bidding of the American petroleum companies.