[ RadSafe ] Project Censored and Depleted Uranium in General

[Roger Helbig]

Radsafe Professionals, 

Comments from the Professor who runs Project Censored .. maybe you can get him to change his 2006 book to something more factual.  Wonder who the experts were that he claimed reviewed the materials in past.  I see where they still take Uranium Medical Research Center as being a valid source.

Roger Helbig

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Phillips" <peter.phillips at sonoma.edu>
To: "Roger Helbig" <rhelbig at california.com>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: Bob Nichols and Depleted Uranium in General


Dear Mr. Helbig,

I assume that your point of contention is the following statement:

  "Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus
University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in
Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs.
The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs."

This statement in our 2005 book I believe did originate from Mr. 
Nichols' article.  Project Censored has a full complement of Ph.D.s 
in every university discipline. Our evaluators - in this case a Ph.D. 
in Chemistry - read the stories for credibility and national 
importance. While we cannot guarantee that everything in every 
article is 100% accurate we are reasonable sure that most of the 
content is correct and has been ignored by the corporate mainsteam 
media in the US. Therefore a Project Censored Award means that the 
subject area is important, in this case depleted uranium munitions, 
and has been seriously under covered in the US media.

One concern is that this important story is probably being 
deliberately ignored by the corporate media in the US to protect 
their sources of news inside the Pentagon and the State Department.

Mr. Nichols has been an outspoken critic of the US government's DU 
policy. However, he has only received a Project Censored Award for 
the one specific article cited in our book.

If you have points of contention with Mr. Nichols on other matters 
that is for you to deal with him directly.

Sincerely,


Peter Phillips


The following is an update on the 2005 story on DU that will appear 
in our Censored 2006 yearbook due out in August 2005.

High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians

Original Sources:

Uranium Medical Research Center, January 2003
Title: "UMRC's Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation 
Enduring Freedom"
and
"Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects"
Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team

Awakened Woman, January 2004
Title: "Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan"
Author: Stephanie Hiller

Dissident Voice, March 2004
Title: "There Are No WordsSRadiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs"
Author: Bob Nichols

New York Daily News, April 5,2004
Title: "Poisoned?"
Author: Juan Gonzalez

Information Clearing House, March 2004
Title: "International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The 
People vs. George Bush"
Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.

Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops 
have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted 
and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States' use 
of tons of uranium munitions
In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) 
studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of the 
samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to 2000% 
higher than normal levels. The UMRC research team studied six sites, 
two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians were 
tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the United 
States and its allies.
Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces. 
Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving in Iraq were 
tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted at the 
request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the cost of 
$1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found that four of 
the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU, likely caused 
by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops. 
Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, that 
are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.
Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, 
tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of 
radioactive uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of 
weapons, on detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when 
inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of 
4.5 billion years. Basically, it's a permanently available 
contaminant, distributed in the environment, where dust storms or any 
water nearby can disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic 
particles that slice through DNA.
. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus University, 
Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in Afghanistan is the 
radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The amount of DU 
used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.

Update by Josh Parrish

There is national dispute on the dangers of Depleted Uranium (DU). 
The Depart of Defense has continually claimed that DU munitions are 
safe. At the same time, veterans groups and various scientists and 
doctors say that DU is the cause of Gulf War Syndrome and responsible 
for a sharp rise in birth defects among Iraqis and returning US 
servicemen.
The information coming from the Department of Defense has, at best, 
been contradictory. Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the deputy director of 
the Deployment Health Support Directorate and Pentagon spokesman on 
Depleted Uranium, has said "as long as this (DU exposure) is exterior 
to your body, you're not at any risk and the potential of 
internalizing it from the environment is extremely small." Several 
studies, commissioned by the Pentagon, have supported this assertion. 
One in particular, The Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War 
Veterans' Illnesses, that reported to President Clinton in 1996 
stated that "current scientific evidence does not support a causal 
link" between veterans symptoms and chemical exposures in the Persian 
Gulf. This committee goes on to say that stress "is likely to be an 
important contributing factor to the broad range of physical and 
psychological illnesses currently being reported by gulf war 
veterans."
However, these Pentagon studies contradict an Army report from 1990 
that stated DU is "linked to cancer when exposures are internal, 
[and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage." Here the US 
government acknowledges that internal exposure to DU is likely to be 
harmful. It is only after the 1991 Gulf War, where DU munitions were 
used for the first time, the government began to claim they were 
harmless.
The main point of contention between the US government and those who 
oppose the use of DU is what constitutes internal exposure and how 
does this exposure occur. The military insists that only soldiers who 
had shrapnel wounds from DU or who were inside tanks shot by DU 
shells and accidentally breathed radioactive dust were at risk. This 
ignores the findings of Leonard Dietz who, in 1979, found that DU 
contaminated dust could travel great distances through the air. Dietz 
accidentally discovered that air filters he was experimenting with 
had collected radioactive dust from a lead plant that was producing 
DU 26 miles away. "The contamination was so heavy that they had to 
remove the topsoil from 52 properties around the plant," Dietz said.
When they were in Iraq, the soldiers of the 442nd Military Police 
Company performed duties such as providing security for convoys, 
running jails and training Iraqi police. The fact that some of these 
soldiers have DU in their bodies is proof that one need not be 
directly exposed to a DU explosion to become contaminated. "These are 
amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police 
and not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who 
examined the GIs and performed the testing that was funded by the New 
York Daily News. One soldier from the 442nd, who tested positive for 
DU exposure, Specialist Gerard Darren Mathew has since fathered a 
child with birth defects. The child is missing three fingers and most 
of her right hand.
Whether or not DU is the cause of the myriad of ailments referred to 
collectively as "Gulf War Syndrome" has not been conclusively proved 
or disproved, and that is the problem. No thorough studies of DU's 
long-term effects have been done. In the absence of studies and 
definitive findings, the US government has simply avoided the issue 
and refused to decontaminate affected areas in Iraq and Afghanistan.





>Dr Phillips,
>
>It appears that the only article in this list by Bob Nichols is the 
>one from DISSIDENT VOICE dated March 2004, Title: "There Are No 
>WordsSRadiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs.  The very 
>title of this article is misleading and false and if this is the 
>only article for which Project Censored has given Bob Nichols an 
>award, it should be withdrawn.
>
>The Indian Navy Admiral who supposedly made this statement has no 
>idea what the radiation from one Nagasaki bomb is like, let alone 
>250,000.  Depleted Uranium does not emit the high level gamma 
>radiation which would require thick lead or even thicker concrete 
>shielding that is found in the fission products resulting from a 
>nuclear explosion.  My understanding from a member of the radsafe 
>list is that the amount of Depleted Uranium by weight used in these 
>conflicts is about equal to 250,000 times the weight of the Highly 
>Enriched Uranium used to make the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. 
>That in no way is a radiation equivalent.
>
>In selecting Depleted Uranium as an under-reported subject, did you 
>or your students obtain any input from a nuclear physicist or health 
>physicist with an intimate understanding of radiation and 
>radioactive materials?  How did you make your selections?  Is there 
>a written record of the candidates and the means by which selections 
>were made, including any independent fact checking of the articles 
>to determine if the reporting was in fact factual?  If there is, 
>please, send me this information?
>
>All of the articles that you have listed have serious flaws. 
>Nichols, though trumpets his Project Censored Award in every single 
>one of his articles including the ones that falsely accused the 
>former Secretary of Veterans Affairs of resigning because of a 
>non-existent "mushrooming DU scandal" and the one that slandered me 
>that ended up all over the world, including the voice of the Iraqi 
>Resistance in Italy.
>
>Please, also send me the formal notice of the award to Bob Nichols.
>
>I am copying my reply to the Radsafe list, where there are a number 
>of knowledgeable experts in the field of ionizing radiation. 
>
>Thank you, for finally contacting me.
>
>Roger W Helbig
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Peter Phillips" <peter.phillips at sonoma.edu>
>To: "Roger Helbig" <rhelbig at california.com>
>Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 2:09 PM
>Subject: Re: Bob Nichols
>
>
>Dear Mr. Helbig,
>
>Below is our exact statement on DU published in our Censored 2005
>book.  What portion of this report are you concerned about?
>
>Peter Phillips
>
>4
>High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
>
>URANIUM MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, January 2003
>Title: "UMRC's Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation
>Enduring Freedom"
>and
>"Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects"
>Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team
>
>AWAKENED WOMAN, January 2004
>Title: "Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan"
>Author: Stephanie Hiller
>
>DISSIDENT VOICE, March 2004
>Title: "There Are No WordsSRadiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs"
>Author: Bob Nichols
>
>NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, April 5,2004
>Title: "Poisoned?"
>Author: Juan Gonzalez
>
>INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
>Title: "International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The
>People vs. George Bush"
>Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.
>
>Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
>Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie
>
>Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops
>have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted
>and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States' use
>of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries
>are bound to feel the effects as well.
>In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC)
>studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of the
>samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to 2000%
>higher than normal levels. The UMRC research team studied six sites,
>two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians were
>tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the United
>States and its allies.
>NDU is more radioactive than depleted uranium (DU), which itself is
>charged with causing many cancers and severe birth defects in the
>Iraqi population-especially children-over the past ten years. Four
>million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in 2003
>alone. Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed
>forces. Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving in Iraq
>were tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted at the
>request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the cost of
>$1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found that four of
>the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU, likely caused
>by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops.
>Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, that
>are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.
>Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets,
>tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of
>radioactive uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of
>weapons, on detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when
>inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of
>4.5 billion years. Basically, it's a permanently available
>contaminant, distributed in the environment, where dust storms or any
>water nearby can disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic
>particles that slice through DNA.
>   UMRC's Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute
>symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of
>internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in
>newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke
>plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by
>burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract.
>Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and
>chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the
>cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower
>back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties,
>headaches, memory problems and disorientation.
>At the Uranium Weapons Conference held October 2003 in Hamburg,
>Germany, independent scientists from around the world testified to a
>huge increase in birth deformities and cancers wherever NDU and DU
>had been used. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus
>University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in
>Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs.
>The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.
>At the Uranium Weapons Conference, a demonstration by British-trained
>oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali showed photographs of the kinds of birth
>deformities and tumors he had observed at the Saddam Teaching
>Hospital in Basra just before the 2003 war. Cancer rates had
>increased dramatically over the previous fifteen years. In 1989 there
>were 11 abnormalities per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per
>100,000-an increase of over a thousand percent. In 1989 34 people
>died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The 2003 war
>has increased these figures exponentially.
>At a meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan
>held December 2003 in Tokyo, the U.S. was indicted for multiple war
>crimes in Afghanistan, among them the use of DU. Leuren Moret,
>President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental
>Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, testified that because
>radioactive contaminants from uranium weapons travel through air,
>water, and food sources, the effects of U.S. deployment in
>Afghanistan will be felt in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan,
>Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China and India.
>Countries affected by the use of uranium weapons in Iraq include
>Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.
>
>UPDATE BY BOB NICHOLS: Throughout the world people are familiar with
>the "smoking gun" solution so prized by murder mystery writers. Many
>people think that once the smoking gun in any mystery is discovered,
>it is time for the "bad guys" to give up and all will be well. Wish
>it were only so. The smoking gun in the case of the deadly uranium
>munitions so loved by the American Military comes in the form of four
>American Troopers from the 442nd Military Police Unit from New York.
>   The men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin
>Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of
>inhaled uranium oxide exposure from the current Iraq conflict. Dr.
>Asaf Durokovic, professor of Nuclear Medicine and a leading expert in
>the field, leads the Uranium Medical Research Centre
><http://www.umrc.net/> and conducted the diagnostic tests. The story
>was released in the New York Daily News on April 3, 2004
><http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html>.
>There is no treatment, no cure, and no way to remove the
>toxic, radioactive, poisonous uranium oxide from their bodies. These
>men and millions of others will carry their own personal internal
>radiation source with them to their graves. It is truly the gift that
>keeps on giving, courtesy of the American Military.
>   The delusional leaders of my American government made the
>only response they knew how to make. They ordered up even more
>bullets, shells, bombs, and missiles with lots of highly radioactive
>uranium on the business end of these deadly weapons of war. Now they
>have turned to the enormous pile, 1.1 Billion Pounds, of uranium they
>used to extract a tiny amount of impurities from to make nuclear
>weapons. Radiation-Wars-R-US!
>   A person's lung tissue cells will certainly react when a gram
>of uranium oxide fires 10,000 to 12,000 little "bullets" per minute
>at the cell nucleus and the precious DNA from inside the body. The
>barrage does not stop for 4.5 billion years - that's "forever" to
>most people. Obliging white blood cells, trying to kill the invader,
>cart the radioactive uranium oxide to the gonads. The reproductive
>organs are where the uranium oxide will do the most damage to the
>next generation.
>   The essay "There Are No Words," asks people to come up with
>their own ending to the disaster. Of course, these leaders of my
>government must be stopped at all costs. Americans have not succeeded
>yet. For reasons having to do with the Administration's helpmates in
>the media, the November, 2004 election may not succeed.
>   Patriotic Americans are doing what they can. Americans
>generally are completely uninformed about the permanent land
>contamination schemes of their government.
>   Countries throughout the world can and should summon forth
>the courage to confront the un-elected government bureaucrats and
>cowboys and give rise to an Impeachment of the entire US governmental
>leadership. The United Nations General Assembly, not the Security
>Council, will probably have to intervene on the so-called "sole
>remaining super power" to stop the Radiation Wars and bring the war
>criminals to trial. There is no time like the present. You all know
>what to do.
>   For more information on the American President's continuing
>campaign of genocide and contamination of the land, watch for news on
>the recent and upcoming World Uranium Weapons Conferences
><http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/>.
>Check the Uranium Medical Research Center and Dr. Asaf Durakovic at
><http://www.umrc.net/>, and for updates on the dirty, expensive, and
>related Nuclear Power Plants see Russell Hoffman's website at:
><http://www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm> .
>Read what Leuren Moret, independent depleted uranium expert and
>former scientist at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab has to say in
>the San Francisco Bay View at <http://www.sfbayview.com/>.
>These YahooGroups have ongoing discussions about uranium munitions:
>du-list at yahoogroups.com; du-watch at yahoogroups.com;
>pandora-project at yahoogroups.com; nucnews at yahoogroups.com;
>abolition-caucus at yahoogroups.com; earthfirstalert at yahoogroups.com
>Read more from Bob Nichols at: <http://www.dissidentvoice.org/>.
>
>UPDATE BY TEDD WEYMAN: UMRC found artificial uranium in bomb craters,
>surrounding watercourses and the bodies of civilians exposed to US
>Coalition bombing in Afghanistan. Civilians surveyed presented with
>the classical symptoms of internal contamination by uranium, which
>began after exposure to the bombing. The presence of artificial
>uranium in environmental and biological samples indicates that the
>bunker buster warheads used in Afghanistan are made of uranium.
>Uranium is a chemically and radiologically toxic element, clinically
>proven to be a cause of various types of cancer and congenital
>malformations (birth defects). Internal contamination of uranium is
>responsible for variety of systemic and organ system problems, which
>has never been considered or studied by the Defense Department or
>Veterans health programs as possible cause of Gulf War Illness. The
>symptoms of internal contamination by uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan
>civilians are identical to the symptoms of US and Coalition veterans
>complaining of Gulf War Illness.
>The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its
>studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent
>misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use
>of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific
>findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff,
>physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research
>organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and
>Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following
>Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils
>and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi
>civilians.
>The United States and several of its Coalition partners and NATO
>allies have been deploying in battlefield and experimenting with
>chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metals in various types of
>bullets, bombs and warheads since the early 1970s. Uranium powder is
>taken from the nuclear fuel reprocessing cycle, after it has been
>mixed with nuclear reactor waste products and spent fuel, to supply
>the non-fissile weapons' manufacturing industry.
>Uranium is preferred over all other "ballistic" metals (e.g. lead,
>iron, tungsten) because it offers a set of unique metallurgical
>properties: it is extremely dense yet ductile metal (not brittle); it
>is pyrophoric (uranium dust burns spontaneously at room temperature);
>and, solid metal uranium is autoigniting at 170° F. Uranium metal has
>a very unusual property not available in any other metal; it is
>"self-sharpening", meaning that when it hits a target at high
>velocities (1 km/sec) it erodes and breaks in such a way as to
>continuously re-sharpen its point - the leading points of all other
>warhead metals flatten or mushroom under these conditions. These
>properties give uranium a superior performance as a penetrating
>warhead alloy capable of breaching the hardest and thickest armor
>plating, retaining penetration capabilities at 15 % greater distances
>and lower speeds than the most common alternative metal, tungsten.
>Burning uranium is hard to extinguish, and if doused with water, it
>will explode. Uranium used in specially designed high velocity liquid
>metal penetrators can bore through 20 feet of super-reinforced
>concrete bunkers in classified weapons called "shaped charges" and
>"explosively formed penetrators". The hard (dense), resilient
>(ductile) and heavy (sustaining momentum) characteristics of uranium
>also make its optimal in the warhead of robust earth-penetrating
>bombs to carry them into buried targets and caves.
>The mainstream press in the US and Canada does not show any general
>interest in the story, let alone an investigative interest. European
>mainstream press is more interested and follows key developments. The
>NY Daily News April 5, 2004 has covered Gulf War II results by UMRC's
>studies of US veterans. DoD has lied and misled the public and the
>veterans in an attempt to undermine the significance of the story.
>There is significant alternative press and internet press coverage.
>The technique for coverage is to approach the story as a debate
>between government and independent experts in which public interest
>is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the
>scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused
>and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP,
>IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons
>developers and manufacturers).
>
>UPDATE BY STEPHANIE HILLER:  This is a shocking story since it
>suggests that experimental nuclear bombs were dropped around Kabul at
>the end of the war Operation Enduring Freedom. (Did they mean
>enduring radiation?)  And what have they dropped on Iraq?
>Continued research shows that we have all been irradiated here in the
>United States, at an enormous cost to the public health. Cancer rates
>alone show that genetic mutation has been rapidly increasing since
>the first bomb was tested in Almorgordo, NM in 1945. But the effects
>of low-level radiation have been systematically hidden from public
>view!
>In April after sick vets from the current war got no help from the
>Pentagon, the mother of one of the soldiers went to the papers. Juan
>Gonzalez of the New York Daily News launched an investigation. The
>News paid for nine men to be tested by Asaf Durakovic. He found that
>four of them were contaminated with uranium. The News got the
>attention of New York Senator Hilary Clinton. She held a
>teleconference- but  Durakovic was not allowed to participate!
>Amy Goodman interviewed Durakovic later the same month on Democracy
>Now!- don't know if it was thanks to my story. AlterNet rejected the
>story because their source on depleted uranium, John Fahey, did not
>agree with it.
>I don't know of any mainstream media that has picked up the story,
>and I don't find any references to the Gonzalez piece either. The BBC
>and the Seattle Post Intelligencer covered it before me.
>To learn more about uranium weapons search the web! It's a huge
>topic. Start with the world Uranium Weapons Conference held last
>October in Hamburg: <http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de> The
>Power Point by Dr. Ali shows the most excruciating consequences of
>Persian Gulf One -- deformed babies. Also, Join WBW! Women for a
>Better World has begun an information campaign to educate the public
>about depleted uranium, especially young people who might be called
>to join the military and their families, regarding the contamination
>of Central Eurasia. Come to our web site for more information,
>flyers, and to sign a petition opposing the draft for the same
>reason. <http://www.awakenedwoman.com/wbw.htm>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>Thank you, Dr Arminana.  I have asked for additional information
>>from your Public Affairs office regarding the actual award to Bob
>>Nichols from Project Censored.  I presume that Dr Phillips will now
>>be in touch with me.  I understand that Bob Nichols never had any
>>direct connection with Sonoma State University other than receiving
>>the Project Censored Award.  If the article that he wrote which
>>received the award is as accurate as the articles that he wrote
>>about me and the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr Nichols
>>should not have received the award.
>>
>>Roger W Helbig
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Ruben Arminana" <Ruben.Arminana at sonoma.edu>
>>To: <rhelbig at california.com>
>>Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:41 PM
>>Subject: Fw: Bob Nichols
>>
>>
>>I apologize for misspelling your name. It should have been Mr. Helbig.
>>ra
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Ruben Arminana
>>To: rhelbing at california.com
>>Cc: Charles Reed ; Elaine Leeder ; peter.phillips at sonoma.edu
>  >Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:37 PM
>>Subject: Bob Nichols
>>
>>
>>Mr. Helbing:
>>
>>I have received a copy of an e-mail that you sent  on April 17, 2005
>>to publicaffairs at calstate.edu demanding that Bob Nichols retract a
>>story that you considered "false, malicious and slanderous." I do
>>not have any power or influence over Mr. Nichols who does not work
>>for Sonoma State University.Further, it is my understading that Mr.
>>Nichols reported this story in media outlets that are not a part of
>>Sonoma State University. I recommend that you may consider taking
>>this the matter directly with him and  with the media outlets that
>>carried the story.
>>
>>Project Censored is an academic project which resides in the
>>Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, at Sonoma State
>>University and which has been in operation for over 30 years. While
>>I personally do not always share or agree with their interpretation
>>of the news stories that they critique or the awards that they may
>>give, they have the academic freedom to do so. For your information,
>>in a former life I was a reporter for a television station and have
>  >been on both sides of the issues of freedom of the press and
>>academic freedom.
>>
>>The award you mentioned was given by Project Censored and not by
>>Sonoma State University. Again, if you feel that Mr. Nichols should
>>not have received whatever award he received from Project Censored,
>>you may express your concerns to Project Censored through its
>>director, Dr. Peter Phillips at peter.phillips at sonoma.edu. I do not
>>intend to pursuit this matter any further.
>>
>>Best wishes,
>>
>>Ruben Arminana
>>President
>
>
>--
>Peter Phillips Ph.D.
>Sociology Department/Project Censored
>Sonoma State University
>1801 East Cotati Ave.
>Rohnert Park, CA 94928
>707-664-2588
>http://www.projectcensored.org/


-- 
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
http://www.projectcensored.org/