- As part of a Libya international observer team, Middle
East analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya headlined his July 5 Global Research.ca
article, "NATO War Crimes: Depleted Uranium Found in Libya by Scientists,"
- Sites targeted include "civilians and civilian infrastructure."
Scientists from the Surveying and Collecting Specimens and Laboratory Measuring
Group confirmed "radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) at bombed sites"
from field surveys conducted. Scientific analysis was conducted at the
Nuclear Energy Institution of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
- It showed that "several sites contain even higher
than expected doses of uranium," including holes from NATO missiles
and ordnance fragments. In interviews, Nazemroaya also said cluster bombs
and other weapons are used freely in civilian neighborhoods targeting non-military
- Washington and NATO allies are using illegal "dirty
- In late March, the Stop the War Coalition said dozens
of US, UK, and French launched bombs and missiles against Libya in the
first 24 hours all had DU warheads. They continue to be used daily despite
Pentagon and other governments' denials.
- On April 14, Foreign Policy in Focus columnist Conn Hallinan
told Press TV that:
- "The fact that the US is denying the use of depleted
uranium (DU) munitions is just nonsense." When used against tanks,
"enormous fireballs" are visible, a unique DU signature. As a
result, "long-term consequences (for Libyans) are going to be severe."
More on that and DU munitions below.
- On April 19, investigative journalist/author Dave Lindorff
also told Press TV that strong evidence points to DU use, saying:
- "The way some of these (armored) vehicles and tanks
have been hit look like it's pretty strong evidence that it is depleted
uranium. It's the kind of explosive burn that you get from that particular
ammunition. And certainly the US has been flying A-10s, which generally
use (DU) shells in their armaments."
- On June 6, historian/researcher Dr. Randy Short repeated
the same charge, telling Press TV viewers that NATO targeted Tripoli residential
areas with DU weapons, cluster bombs, and other illegal substances. Back
from Tripoli, he said:
- "I've been to one particular area....in which Seif
al-Islam Gaddafi's house is located, and in that community which was residential,
I saw the damage to civilian homes."
- He added that high numbers of civilian deaths and injuries
emboldened Libyans to resist Western imperialism.
- On April 18, former Pentagon Depleted Uranium Project
director Dr. Doug Rokke told Russia Today that DU struck areas can't be
decontaminated, saying it has a half-lfe of 4.5 billion years. As a result,
it's called "the silent killer that will never stop killing."
- He also said he "was watching ABC News (on April
15) and, lo and behold, there was a DU impact. It burned and burned and
- During the 1991 Gulf War, Rokke was ordered to lie about
its use and effects. It damaged his health, and most of his crew died from
exposure. Nonetheless, "DU is so good against all types of targets
that (the Pentagon) will never give it up."
- America is one of the few non-signatories to the UN Human
Rights Sub-Commission's DU ban. For over two decades, it's contaminated
vast areas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Serbia/Kosovo, Libya and other
nations struck. Moreover, the Pentagon regularly uses other illegal terror
weapons, including experimental ones tested in real time.
- Former Lawrence Livermore Lab chemical physicist calls
DU "the perfect weapon for killing lots of people," adding that
"depleted uranium missiles (and other weapons) fit the description
of a dirty bomb in every way."
- On March 31, the UK Uranium Weapons Network and Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament issued a joint news release headlined, "Fears
grow over possible depleted uranium use in Libya," saying:
- Inhaling highly toxic/radioactive DU "is thought
to be linked to the sharp increases in cancer rates and birth defects reported
in affected areas," as well as numerous other diseases.
- Nonetheless, on March 28, Admiral William Gortney said,
"We have employed A-10s and AC-130s over the weekend." A-10 gunships
use DU munitions against tanks, armored vehicles, and other targets, including
residential neighborhood ones.
- They fire 3,900 armor-piercing high explosive rounds
per minute, spreading vast DU contamination. According to Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament's general secretary Kate Hudson:
- "Depleted uranium weapons are weapons of indiscriminate
effect," causing cancer, birth defects and other diseases. "Using
them in built up areas in effect targets civilians. This runs counter to
everything the coalition has claimed about protecting (them. It represents)
an appalling step backwards. It is completely unacceptable - indeed illegal,"
because of their long-term harm to human health.
- Why America's Military Uses DU Munitions
- DU's density enables it easily to penetrate targets and
destroy them. They're solid missiles, bombs, shells and bullets, weighing
up to 5,000 pounds in a single "bunker buster" bomb.
- Using solid DU projectiles or warheads, they're used
in all US war theaters, including indiscriminately against civilian targets.
They're de facto nuclear bombs, what major media reports won't explain
and Pentagon officials deny.
- First developed by the Navy in 1968, Israel tested them
under US supervision during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Later they were sold
to 29 or more countries but never used until the 1991 Gulf War when America
broke an international prohibition. Thereafter, thousands of tons contaminated
air, water and soil in target zones and well beyond.
- Although no international convention or treaty bans them,
they're de facto and de jure illegal under the 1907 Hague Convention, prohibiting
"poison or poisoned weapons" use. Also, under the 1925 Geneva
Protocol, as well as later Geneva and other conventions, specifically banning
chemical, biological, and other poisoned weapons.
- In all forms, DU is radioactive and chemically toxic,
thus conforming to Hague's poisonous weapons definition. Using them is
thus a war crime.
- Moreover, their use also meets the U.S. federal code
definition of "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) in 2 of 3 categories:
- [The US CODE, TITLE 50, CHAPTER 40, SECTION 2302 defines
a Weapon of Mass Destruction as follows:
- "The term 'weapon of mass destruction' means any
weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death
or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the
release, dissemination, or impact of (A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or
their precursors, (B) a disease organism, or (C) radiation or radioactivity."
- Because America is a Hague and Geneva signatory, its
own code is thus violated. Moreover, under other binding international
laws, using weapons that cause post-battle environmental and human harm
are illegal and prohibited.
- Their greatest damage happens after use because they
penetrate targets deeply, aerosolize into a fine spray, then spread permanent
contamination over wide areas. Their microscopic and submicroscopic particles
remain suspended or get swept into the air from tainted soil. Winds then
carry them worldwide as radioactive components of atmospheric dust, settling
indiscriminately far from strike zones.
- As a result, countless millions have been irreparably
harmed or killed, combatants and civilians. In fact, radiation poisoning
causes virtually every imaginable illness from severe headaches, muscle
pain, general fatigue, depression, and permanent disability to major birth
defects, infections, cardiovascular disease, many types of cancer, and
- Libyans now face the same fate as Iraqis, Afghans, Serbians,
Kosovars, and other victims of US aggression. It's of no consequence for
US political and Pentagon planners, spreading death, destruction, and human
misery globally, not liberation and better lives because of American good
will it never had and doesn't now.
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
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