Radioactive Tank No. 9 Comes Limping Home

Radioactive Tank No. 9 Comes Limping Home
Bob Nichols

from the San Francisco Bay View

November 13, 2005

Across the plains of Kansas, destroyed,

radioactive Abrams tanks, perched on railroad

flatcars, rolled towards an uncertain future.

Only one thing was certain. They would be

radioactive forever. This would be their

everlasting death mask. The Pentagon

deceptively calls it "depleted uranium."

The Abrams tanks are constructed with a layer

of radioactive uranium metal plates. The big

tanks fire a giant uranium dart at 2,100 mph,

much faster than an F-16 fighter aircraft, mach

III to airplane pilots and very, very fast to

the rest of us.

American taxpayers paid to ship the tanks to

Iraq and to return them for disposal or

re-building in the United States. The tanks are

12 feet wide and weigh a stout 70 tons, or

140,000 pounds.

The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S.

military pretends that radiation is one of

those things that if you can't see it, it can't

hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of

course. A National Academy of Sciences report

released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no

safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad.

From America to Iraq and back, these giant

radioactive hulks can only sicken and kill

Americans. On top of the sheer, unrelenting

stupidity of playing with radiation with

unsuspecting soldiers, now the neo-con

government is involving everyday Americans in

their radiation madness

The Pentagon can't even follow simple radiation

hazard mitigation instructions. Their own rules

and regulations have the force of law

throughout the world. Yet they are ignored in

the United States.

Dr. Doug Rokke

Dr. Doug Rokke is the Pentagon's former

director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium

Project. When contacted on Oct. 22, he viewed

Chris Bayruh's photographs and made this

statement about the radioactive tanks in

Kansas: "The radioactive damaged Abrams tanks

that were left unsecured on a Kansas railroad

track are a perfect example of exactly how not

to ship damaged radioactive equipment and how

not to protect our Army's Abrams tanks from

possible sabotage and compromise of classified

battle systems."

On Oct. 10, prior to the discovery of the

radioactive tanks, Dr. Rokke made the following

statement. It is eerily predictive of what

would happen in Kansas three days later. "U.S.

Department of Defense officials continue to

deny that there are any adverse health and

environmental effects as a consequence of the

manufacture, testing and/or use of uranium

munitions to avoid liability for the willful

and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic

material - depleted uranium."

Dr. Rokke continued, "They [the U.S. military]

arrogantly refuse to comply with their own

regulations, orders and directives that require

United States Department of Defense officials

to provide prompt and effective medical care to

all exposed individuals." (See Note 1 below.)

"They also refuse to clean up dispersed

radioactive contamination of equipment as

required by Army regulations." (See Note 2.)

"Specifically, they are required (see Note 3)

to accomplish four things:

1) Military personnel must 'identify,

segregate, isolate, secure and label all RCE'

(radiologically contaminated equipment).

2) 'Procedures to minimize the spread of

radioactivity will be implemented as soon as

possible.'

3) 'Radioactive material and waste will not be

locally disposed of through burial, submersion,

incineration, destruction in place, or

abandonment' and

4) 'All equipment, to include captured or

combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged,

retrograded, decontaminated and released.'

"The past and current use of uranium weapons,

the release of radioactive components in

destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment,

and releases of industrial, medical and

research facility radioactive materials have

resulted in unacceptable exposures."

Dr. Rokke added, "Therefore, decontamination

must be completed as required by U.S. Army

Regulation 700-48 and should include releases

of all radioactive materials resulting from

military operations.

"The extent of adverse health and environmental

effects of uranium weapons contamination is not

limited to combat zones but includes facilities

and sites where uranium weapons were

manufactured or tested, including Vieques,

Puerto Rico, Colonie, New York, and Jefferson

Proving Grounds, Indiana.

"Therefore, medical care must be provided by

the United States Department of Defense

officials to all individuals affected by the

manufacturing, testing and/or use of uranium

munitions. Thorough environmental remediation

also must be completed without further delay.

"I am amazed," exclaimed Dr. Rokke, "that 14

years after I was asked to clean up the initial

DU mess from Gulf War I and almost 10 years

since I finished the depleted uranium project,

United States Department of Defense officials

and many others still attempt to justify

uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory

requirements.

"But beyond the ignored mandatory actions, the

willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive

and chemically toxic waste in the form of

uranium munitions just does not even pass the

common sense test.

"Finally, continued compliance with the

infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum (see

Note 5) that was issued to ensure continued use

of uranium munitions cannot be justified.

"In conclusion," Dr. Rokke urged, "the

president of the United States, George W. Bush,

and the prime minister of Great Britain, Tony

Blair, must acknowledge and accept

responsibility for willful use of illegal

uranium munitions - their own "dirty bombs" -

resulting in adverse health and environmental

effects."

"President Bush and Prime Minister Blair also

should order:
1) medical care for all casualties,

2) thorough environmental remediation,

3) immediate cessation of retaliation against

all of us who demand compliance with medical

care and environmental remediation

requirements,

4) and ban the future use of depleted uranium

munitions," Dr. Rokke concluded.

A little old lady in tennis shoes

Leuren Moret is a world famous scientist and

radiation specialist who formerly worked at the

Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, where

she became a whistleblower in 1991. She has

spoken out about the danger of uranium

munitions to humanity in more than 42

countries.

Moret has appeared in four documentaries about

uranium munitions (depleted uranium). "Beyond

Treason" debuted in August 2005 and won the

Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Film

Festival. The newest film, "Blowin' in the

Wind," was nominated during its debut the first

week of November in Australia for an Academy

Award.

Moret was an expert witness at the

International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan

and serves as an adviser and expert witness in

court cases regarding radiation exposure. Her

statement, made Oct. 24, about the dead tanks

in Kansas follows:

"Sally Devlin, a little old lady in tennis

shoes, went to a public meeting several years

ago, held by the Air Force in Pahrump, Nevada.

Two officers told the citizens of the town that

the Air Force would be moving 80 old target

practice tanks and tons of old depleted uranium

munitions through their town.

"The radioactive bullets had been picked up off

the Nellis gunnery ranges by order of the state

of Nevada and were being transported to the

Nevada Test Site [a nuclear weapons test site]

to be buried as radioactive waste.

"When Mrs. Devlin politely asked them how they

would prevent the residents of the town from

being contaminated by the radioactive dust on

the tanks and bullets, the officers said,

'We're wrapping them in Saran Wrap.' She told

them that would be unacceptable and stopped the

Air Force dead in their tracks," Moret

concluded.

Whether it is Saran Wrap in Nevada or nothing

at all in Kansas, the Pentagon just doesn't get

it when it comes to uranium radiation

dispersing weapons. It is way past time to take

all their nuclear weapons and uranium munitions

away from them and send them home to get real

jobs. They are clearly incapable of protecting

this country from all dangers, including those

created by our own U.S. military.

The U.S. military shows so little regard for

Americans in Kansas, one wonders what on earth

they have done to Iraq. The U.S. military has

distributed an estimated 8 million pounds of

weaponized ceramic uranium oxide gas, aerosols

and dust on a practically defenseless little

country of 26 million people (see Note 6),

according to an estimate by former U.S.

Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

What is this lethal radioactive weapon supposed

to do? Why was it used? Ceramic uranium oxide

gas is a genocidal weapon, for God's sake. It

persists in the environment forever. In Leuren

Moret's pithy words, "The Iraqis are uranium

meat."

The politicians, Pentagon staff, generals,

commanding officers and others responsible for

this war crime must be arrested, tried,

convicted and appropriately punished for their

crimes against humanity.

There is another explanation

Another explanation is that the U.S. Army and

other branches of the military are far from

stupid. They are, in fact, the most lethal and

carefully planned military in the history of

the world. The extensive use of weaponized

uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust is not an

accident or an oversight. They did it on

purpose.

If this is true, they purposely used a

genocidal weapon over at least a 15-year

period. No, this is not a callous mistake of

empire; it is a calculated act of genocide to

weaken the oil- and gas-rich countries of

Central Asia, including Iraq. Take your choice:

they are either stupid or genocidal monsters.

A British group has estimated the weaponized

ceramic uranium oxide will account for an

additional 25 million cancers in Iraq in the

next several years. There are only 26 million

Iraqis to start with, minus the nearly 1.7

million killed by war or sanctions since 1991,

plus some live births.

A National Academy of Sciences report released

June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe

level of radiation. The committee dismissed the

idea that any radiation could be harmless or

beneficial.

The radioactive tanks in Kansas and Iraq are

the same. They are placed there at great

expense by the senior American political and

military leadership, with premeditated malice.

The bottom line purpose of a 140,000-pound

radioactive tank is to kill people.

Uranium munitions a war crime

Dennis Kyne, noted speaker and writer, is a

former drill instructor (DI) and a 15-year

veteran of the Army as well as a Gulf War vet

(see www.denniskyne.com). Kyne makes a point of

how "hot" or radioactive the tanks in Kansas

would be if they were hit by "friendly fire" to

get beat up so much. They could be contaminated

with as much as 30,000 times background

radiation. That is what uranium munitions do to

a tank, bunker or building.

Karen Parker, a prominent U.S. international

human rights lawyer, says there are four rules

derived from humanitarian laws and conventions

regarding weapons:

1. Weapons may only be used against legal enemy

military targets and must not have an adverse

effect elsewhere (the territorial rule).

2. Weapons can only be used for the duration of

an armed conflict and must not be used or

continue to act afterwards (the temporal rule).

3. Weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the

"humaneness" rule). The Hague Conventions of

1899 and 1907 speak of "unnecessary suffering"

and "superfluous injury" in this regard.

4. Weapons may not have an unduly negative

effect on the natural environment (the

"environmental" rule).

"DU weaponry fails all four tests," Parker

states. "First, DU cannot be limited to legal

military targets. Second, it cannot be 'turned

off' when the war is over but keeps killing.

"Third, DU can kill through painful conditions

such as cancers and organ damage and can also

cause birth defects, such as facial deformities

and missing limbs. Lastly, DU cannot be used

without unduly damaging the natural

environment.

"In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the

grave breach provisions of the Geneva

Conventions," Parker concluded, "and so its use

constitutes a war crime, or crime against

humanity."

Notes

1. "Medical Management of Unusual Depleted

Uranium Casualties," DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93,

"Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed

to Depleted Uranium (DU)," Headquarters, U.S.

Army Medical Command, 4/29/04, and section 2-5

of AR 700-48 .

2. AR 700- 48: "Management of Equipment

Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or

Radioactive Commodities," Headquarters,

Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.,

September 2002, and U.S. Army Technical

Bulletin TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe

Response To Handling, Storage, and

Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank

Munitions or Armor Which Contain Depleted

Uranium," Headquarters, Department of the Army,

Washington, D.C., July 1996,

http://traprockpeace.org/du_pam_700-48.pdf.

3. Section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation

700-48 dated Sept. 16, 2002, specifies these

requirements.

4. IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM

700-48. Maximum exposure limits are specified

in Appendix F.

5.

http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.h

tml

6. Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark's

estimate,

http://www.covertactionquarterly.org/demonize.h

tml

Copyright Bob Nichols. Copying permitted if you

credit the source and leave everything intact,

including notes. Bob Nichols is a Project

Censored Award winner and lives in California.

He formerly lived in Oklahoma. He is a

contributor to OnLineJournal.com,

AxisofLogic.com, DissidentVoice.com and other

online publications and is a correspondent for

the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Nichols

is a former employee of the McAlester Army

Ammunition Plant. He can be reached by email at

bob.bobnichols@gmail.com.

Fair Use Statement

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of US Copyright Law, this attributed work is

provided via Thomas Paine’s Corner on a

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research, education, and the advancement of

human rights and social justice.

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