JNN 13 April  2011 : The Stop the War Coalition says the bombs and missiles that the US-led military alliance has dropped on several Libyan cities contain depleted uranium (DU).

The report recently published on the Coalition’s website said that in the first 24 hours of the war on Libya, dozens of bombs and cruise missiles were launched by US, British, and French forces all with depleted uranium warheads.

US B-2 aircraft dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs on key Libyan cities, it added.

DU munitions are controversial because they raise long-term health concerns like kidney damage, cancer, skin disorders and genetic defects.

“[Depleted uranium tipped missiles] fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way… I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people,” said Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd.), Lawrence Livermore Lab in California.

In the first 24 hours of the Libyan attack, US B-2s dropped forty-five 2,000-pound bombs. These massive bombs, along with the Cruise missiles launched from British and French planes and ships, all contained depleted uranium (DU) warheads.

“[Depleted uranium tipped missiles] fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way… I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.” ~ Marion Falk, chemical physicist (retd), Lawrence Livermore Lab, California, USA

DU is the waste product from the process of enriching uranium ore. It is used in nuclear weapons and reactors. Because it is a very heavy substance, 1.7 times denser than lead, it is highly valued by the military for its ability to punch through armored vehicles and buildings. When a weapon made with a DU tip strikes a solid object like the side of a tank, it goes straight through it, then erupts in a burning cloud of vapor. The vapor settles as dust, which is not only poisonous, but also radioactive.

An impacting DU missile burns at 10,000 degrees C. When it strikes a target, 30% fragments into shrapnel. The remaining 70% vaporises into three highly-toxic oxides, including uranium oxide. This black dust remains suspended in the air and, according to wind and weather, can travel over great distances. If you think Iraq and Libya are far away, remember that radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales.

Particles less than 5 microns in diameter are easily inhaled and may remain in the lungs or other organs for years. Internalized DU can cause kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, skin disorders, neurocognitive disorders, chromosome damage, immune deficiency syndromes and rare kidney and bowel diseases. Pregnant women exposed to DU may give birth to infants with genetic defects. Once the dust has vaporised, don’t expect the problem to go away soon. As an alpha particle emitter, DU has a half life of 4.5 billion years.

In the ‘shock and awe’ attack on Iraq, more than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad alone. Seymour Hersh has claimed that the US Third Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than “five hundred thousand tons of ordnance”. All of it DU-tipped.

Al Jazeera reported that invading US forces fired two hundred tons of radioactive material into buildings, homes, streets and gardens of Baghdad. A reporter from the Christian Science Monitor took a Geiger counter to parts of the city that had been subjected to heavy shelling by US troops. He found radiation levels 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal in residential areas. With its population of 26 million, the US dropped a one-ton bomb for every 52 Iraqi citizens or 40 pounds of explosives per person.

William Hague has said that we are in Libya ” to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas”.You don’t have to look far for who and what are being ‘protected’.

In that first 24 hours the ‘Allies’ ‘expended’ £100 million on DU-tipped ordnance. The European Union’s arms control report said member states issued licences in 2009 for the sale of £293.2 million worth of weapons and weapons systems to Libya. Britain issued arms firms licences for the sale of £21.7 million worth of weaponry to Libya and were also paid by Colonel Gadaffi to send the SAS to train his 32nd Brigade.

For the next 4.5 billion years, I’ll bet that William Hague will not be holidaying in North Africa.

The report comes as the Western forces claim the operation in Libya is aimed at protecting civilians.

Director of the US military’s Joint Staff Bill Gortney has told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that he is not aware of any use of depleted uranium munitions in Libya.

Libya says at least 114 people — many of them civilians — have been killed in US-led airstrikes in the country.

“We are losing many lives, military and civilians,” Libyan government Spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in Libya since US-led forces launched aerial and sea attacks on the North African country.

Libyan troops have also killed thousands of civilians since a revolution started against Colonel Gaddafi in mid-February.

Shells, bombs and cruise missiles tipped with depleted uranium and tungsten easily pierce through heavy armor and fortifications.

Air, water and soil are also contaminated when such weapons are used.

Dr. Doug Rokke, the ex-director of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project, says there is no way to totally decontaminate an area hit with uranium.

Serious long-term health problems caused by the use of depleted uranium in bombs can range from cancer to leukemia and genetic mutations.

The United Nations has prohibited the manufacture, testing, use, sale and stockpiling of depleted uranium weapons.

The US dropped thousands of depleted uranium bombs on the Iraq city of Fallujah in 2003, which killed thousands of people.

A great proportion of all births in Fallujah since the strike have suffered from abnormalities and the rate of mutation among newborns is higher than what was found in Japan after America attacked the Asian country during the Second World War.

US, British, French, Canadian, Danish and Belgian warplanes have launched strikes on Libya since March 19 under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 that authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

This is while Libya continues to be struck with the conflict between revolutionaries and forces loyal to the North African country’s embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.

AFP says that Gaddafi’s forces have killed at least 10,000 people during the ongoing fighting; and Libya’s National Transition Council said Tuesday that another 30,000 were wounded and 20,000 more are still missing. 

In the name of Peace and Security , the Libyan Population has been killed by Gaddafi and the US led Nato forces both , While both have their own agenda and interest in acquiring Power of the North African Oil , while the US Plan started , before the first Protest even came on Ground , as the Al Qaida Trained  Mercenaries who get their complete training and got tested  in Afghanistan and Iraq are here , fighting with the rehels , and it is not far they will declare this war as Holy war , and Saudi Arabia , Qatar and Egypt are funding and supplying  them equipment  , while the Zionist Plan is to fill the whole of the area with there Wahabi Agents , which will later be easy for them to implement there plan of Greater Israel.

And in this plan US and West is with them , while the so called Muslim countries Saudi Arabia , UAE , the Presently Ruling Army Junta of Egypt is also giving them full

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