Sign the petition this week before it's delivered!
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/us-sends-planes-armed-depleted-uranium-middle-east

The U.S. Air Force says it is not halting its use of
Depleted Uranium weapons, has recently sent them to the Middle East, and is prepared to use them.
A type of airplane, the A-10, deployed this month to the Middle East
by the U.S. Air National Guard's 122nd Fighter Wing, is responsible for
more
Depleted Uranium (DU) contamination than
any other platform, according to the International Coalition to Ban
Uranium Weapons (ICBUW). "Weight for weight and by number of rounds
more 30mm PGU-14B ammo has been used than any other round," said ICBUW
coordinator Doug Weir, referring to ammunition used by A-10s, as
compared to DU ammunition used by tanks.
Public affairs superintendent Master Sgt. Darin L. Hubble of the
122nd Fighter Wing told me that the A-10s now in the Middle East along
with "300 of our finest airmen" have been sent there on a deployment
planned for the past two years and have not been assigned to take part
in the current fighting in Iraq or Syria, but "that could change at any
moment."
The crews will load PGU-14
depleted uranium
rounds into their 30mm Gatling cannons and use them as needed, said
Hubble. "If the need is to explode something -- for example a tank --
they will be used."
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright told me, "There is no prohibition against the use of
Depleted
Uranium rounds, and the [U.S. military] does make use of them. The use
of DU in armor-piercing munitions allows enemy tanks to be more easily
destroyed."
On Thursday, several nations, including Iraq,
spoke to the United Nations First Committee, against the use of
Depleted Uranium and in support of studying and mitigating the damage in already contaminated areas. A non-binding
resolution
is expected to be voted on by the Committee this week, urging nations
that have used DU to provide information on locations targeted. A
number of
organizations are delivering a
petition to U.S. officials this week urging them not to oppose the resolution.
Sign the petition this week before it's delivered!
In 2012 a resolution on DU was supported by 155 nations and opposed
by just the UK, U.S., France, and Israel. Several nations have banned
DU, and in June Iraq proposed a global treaty banning it -- a step also
supported by the European and Latin American Parliaments.
Wright said that the U.S. military is "addressing concerns on the use
of DU by investigating other types of materials for possible use in
munitions, but with some mixed results. Tungsten has some limitations in
its functionality in armor-piercing munitions, as well as some health
concerns based on the results of animal research on some
tungsten-containing alloys. Research is continuing in this area to find
an alternative to DU that is more readily accepted by the public, and
also performs satisfactorily in munitions."
"I fear DU is this generation's Agent Orange," U.S. Congressman Jim
McDermott told me. "There has been a sizable increase in childhood
leukemia and birth defects in Iraq since the Gulf War and our subsequent
invasion in 2003. DU munitions were used in both those conflicts.
There are also grave suggestions that DU weapons have caused serious
health issues for our Iraq War veterans. I seriously question the use
of these weapons until the U.S. military conducts a full investigation
into the effect of DU weapon residue on human beings."
Doug Weir of ICBUW said renewed use of DU in Iraq would be "a
propaganda coup for ISIS." His and other organizations opposed to DU are
guardedly watching a possible U.S. shift away from DU, which the U.S.
military said it did not use in Libya in 2011. Master Sgt. Hubble of
the 122nd Fighter Wing believes that was simply a tactical decision.
But public pressure had been brought to bear by activists and allied
nations' parliaments, and by a UK commitment not to use DU.
DU is classed as a Group 1 Carcinogen by the World Health Organization, and
evidence
of health damage produced by its use is extensive. The damage is
compounded, Jeena Shah at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
told me, when the nation that uses DU refuses to identify locations
targeted. Contamination enters soil and water. Contaminated scrap metal
is used in factories or made into cooking pots or played with by
children.
CCR and Iraq Veterans Against the War have filed a
Freedom of Information Act Request
in an attempt to learn the locations targeted in Iraq during and after
the 1991 and 2003 assaults. The UK and the Netherlands have revealed
targeted locations, Shah pointed out, as did NATO following DU use in
the Balkans. And the United States has revealed locations it targeted
with cluster munitions. So why not now?
"For years," Shah said, "the U.S. has denied a relationship between
DU and health problems in civilians and veterans. Studies of UK veterans
are highly suggestive of a connection. The U.S. doesn't want studies
done." In addition, the United States has used DU in
civilian areas and identifying those locations could suggest violations of Geneva Conventions.
Iraqi doctors will be testifying on the damage done by DU before the
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commissionin Washington, D.C., in December.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration said
on Thursday that it will be spending $1.6 million to try to identify atrocities committed in Iraq . . . by ISIS.
Sign the petition this week before it's delivered!
Sign up for articles or press releases here
http://davidswanson.org/lists
This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and read by the NSA
which violates our freedoms using the justification of immoral, illegal
wars absurdly described as being somehow
for freedom.
Sign up for these emails at
http://davidswanson.org/signup.
Related Info: