[ RadSafe ] Scottish Parliament Under Pressure According to Scottish Herald

Tue Apr 14 01:32:01 CDT 2009

I expect that Rob Edwards, the "reporter" of this piece has long been
known as someone who cares little about the truth as long as he makes
his anti-nuclear points.  Has anyone on the list had any luck
countering him?  I presume that the Scottish Parliament has little
actual power, but this is just one more chink in the armor if they
vote based on the lies put forth by Edwards and the International
Campaign to Ban (non-existent) Uranium Weapons - I say non-existent
because they claim that there is a whole suite of uranium weapons;
they even claim that enriched uranium is being used for penetrators to
avoid testing positive as DU - what nuts -

I also wonder what exactly "mounting pressure" is -- who is pressuring
them - is anyone telling them that the pressurers have got the facts
wrong.  When the reporter cites Herbert Reed, the malcontent from the
New York National Guard who is making a career out of being sick due
to DU - the list of symptoms is truly amazing - I would like to put
Reed on the stand and make him really subject to perjury if he lies
and find out just exactly what he ails from if anything - Doug Rokke
also has claimed to be sick and dying from post-Gulf War DU exposure
for close to ten years or more and he is still alive and making the
anti-DU/9/11 Truth movement rounds.

Here are the symptoms that Herbert Reed claims to be experiencing
because he was stationed in Iraq and thus exposed to DU dust since it
is everywhere according to the anti-DU crusaders -

80. Plaintiff Reed sustained serious and permanent injuries, including
but not limited to, shortness of breath, skin rashes, severe itching,
body and joint aches, headaches, chronic fatigue, dizziness, diarrhea,
blood in urine, blood in stool, blurrred vision, long and short term
memory loss, and recurring abnormal growths requiring surgical
removal, neuropathy of both
hands and left leg, sleep apnea, chronic chest pains and sexual dysfunction.

I find it rather difficult to believe that Reed and every one of his
fellow NY National Guardsmen have these exact symptoms or that they
have anything to do with depleted uranium.  I rather think that Reed
has found "gold in uranium" - he has had free trips to Japan, to Costa
Rica (twice) to New Mexico, etc. -- nice to tour on the anti-DU
crusaders' dime.

Roger Helbig

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/269.html

Scottish politicians under pressure to support EU uranium weapon
moratorium.
The Scottish government is coming under mounting pressure to back an
international ban on the use of depleted uranium (DU) in weapons.
Article originally published in the Sunday Herald, 05 April 2009.

6 April 2009 - Rob Edwards
MSPs from the Scottish Nationalist, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties
are calling on Scottish ministers to try and stop DU from being used by
the UK government in future conflicts. They also want an end to the
testing of DU shells at the Dundrennan military firing range near
Kirkcudbright.

 The Scottish government has strongly opposed the test firing of DU
shells on Scottish soil. But under the terms of the devolution
settlement, it has no powers to prevent it.

DU is a radioactive and chemically toxic heavy metal produced as waste
by the nuclear industry. It has been widely used by UK and US military
forces to harden armour-piercing shells fired in the Gulf, Balkans and
Iraq wars.

When DU weapons burn, they release a hazardous dust which can
contaminate wide areas. Civilians and soldiers exposed to the
contamination claim to have suffered from cancers, birth defects and
other illnesses as a result.

The former US army military police investigator, Herbert Reed, says that
he has suffered from breathing problems, headaches, nerve damage and
joint pain since he was contaminated by DU while serving in Iraq during
2003. "Once it enters your body there is no known way of getting it
out," he told the Sunday Herald.

"The minute particles are insoluble and just travel around latching onto
various organs and bones," he said. "I believe that DU should be banned
until further investigation is conducted on its effects on humans and
the environment."

The test-firing of more than 6,000 DU shells since 1982 has also
contaminated the ground at Dundrennan in Dumfriesshire. Soil samples
taken in 2006 showed the highest contamination for ten years, and
breached agreed safety limits.

Demands for curbs on DU weapons have been escalating internationally.
The European Parliament voted for a moratorium by an 94% majority last
year and 141 countries supported a resolution at the United Nations
General Assembly requesting a fresh look at the health and environmental
impact of DU.

Last week the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) expressed a
willingness to look again at the use of DU weapons after the UN General
Assembly meets in 2010. And the 23-nation Latin American parliament, the
Parlatino, began considering a motion to ban DU weapons.

Against this background, the Glasgow Green MSP, Patrick Harvie, has
lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament strongly urging the Scottish
government "to offer its moral and, where appropriate, practical support
for a global ban on the use of depleted uranium weapons."

Patrick Harvie MSP

The motion has been already been backed by six SNP MSPs, two Liberal
Democrats and the former Labour Minister, Malcolm Chisholm. "The UK
government should immediately commit never to use or test these shells
again," said Harvie.

S3M-03492 Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Scottish Green Party): European
Resolution on Depleted Uranium Weapons (photo of him gleaming - too
bad that he seems to have missed learning much about uranium on his
rise to political power)

"The serious long-term effects of depleted uranium on health and the
environment have long been well understood, and they bring a price
neither Iraq nor Dumfriesshire should have to pay."

Harvie accepted that the Scottish government did not have the power to
block the Ministry of Defence (MoD) from testing DU shells at
Dundrennan. But he added: "They must put all the pressure they can on
the MoD to do the right thing."

The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons called on MSPs from
all parties to back Harvie's motion. "This gives Scotland an opportunity
to tell Westminster that, along with the overwhelming majority of the
European Union's population, it rejects the use of inhumane and
indiscriminate weapons," said the coalition's coordinator, Doug Weir.

"It is an unpleasant irony that UK forces have fired more depleted
uranium rounds in Scotland than they have in Iraq, yet Scotland appears
powerless to be able to stop the use of Dumfriesshire as a toxic dumping
ground."

The Scottish environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, reiterated the
government's strong opposition to the testing of DU shells in Scotland.
"We presently have no powers to stop test firing on our soil by the MoD
but we have repeatedly made it clear to Whitehall that we are against
this practice," she said.

Testing on Dundrennan Range

"The Scottish government wrote in strong terms to the MoD about that
previous test firing and the lack of notification we received. We have
since received assurances from them that there are no more test firings
planned and we believe there should not be any more such testing on
Scottish soil."

The MoD argued that there was no satisfactory alternative to DU for an
armour-piercing weapon. "Therefore DU anti-armour munitions will remain
part of our arsenal for the foreseeable future because we have a duty to
provide our troops with the best available equipment with which to
protect them and succeed in conflict," said an MoD spokesman.

Notes:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk
http://www.robedwards.com