[ RadSafe ] Project Censored and Depleted Uranium in General

[Muckerheide, James]

If 800 tons = 83,000 bombs, so each bomb is about 20 pounds!? :-)

Well, I suppose I'd hate to be standing under 20 lb U or Pu dropped from
20,000 feet! :-)

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
========================


> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf Of Roger Helbig
> Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 7:28 PM
> To: radsafe
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Project Censored and Depleted Uranium in General
> 
> 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/
> 
> 
> 
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