Muhajir frame-up hides real terrorists
Washington's depleted uranium 'dirty bombs'
By Sara Flounders
The writer was co-editor of the book "Metal of Dishonor:
How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with DU
Weapons" (International Action Center, 1997). Much of the
information in this article is drawn from "Metal of
Dishonor."
In a dangerous legal precedent and complete violation of
constitutional rights, a U.S. citizen is being held without the
rights of due process or freedom from unreasonable seizure.
Abdullah al Muhajir, a Puerto Rican Muslim from Chicago
formerly known as Jose Padilla, is being accused of planning to
build a radioactive "dirty bomb" to attack a U.S. city.
According to news reports, Muhajir had no accomplices, no
materials, no access to materials and no training in making
such a bomb.
The prosecution's "secret" evidence is so flimsy that the
government acknowledges it is not likely to obtain an
indictment from a grand jury. In the current political climate,
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft would likely have no
trouble getting an indictment if there was any evidence at
all.
Muhajir is being held without charges under the legal
category of "enemy combatant," despite the fact that Congress
has not declared war. He was brought to New York, moved to a
South Carolina naval brig and then to Department of Defense
custody. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Muhajir may
never get a trial.
But the very charge that Muhajir may have discussed the idea
of unleashing a radioactive bomb is so ominous that it has
silenced the U.S. corporate media and many civil rights
organizations.
Using the charge that an "unfolding terrorist plot to attack
the United States with a radioactive 'dirty bomb' had been
disrupted," U.S. government attacks on civil rights and civil
liberties have reached an ominous new level.
While in Moscow on June 10, Ashcroft called a dramatic press
conference to announce Muhajir's arrest. Ashcroft announced
that the FBI and the CIA, working together, had uncovered this
nefarious plot. Ashcroft assured the media that such a bomb
would have caused "mass death and injury."
Muhajir had been held incommunicado since his arrest on May
8 at O'Hare International Airport. Ashcroft's grand
announcement in Moscow--five weeks after Muhajir's
arrest--conveniently coincided with President George Bush's
unveiling of a new Homeland Security Department.
Who are real 'dirty bombers'?
A quick search on the Internet reveals hundreds of news
stories debating the possible problems of evacuating major U.S.
cities if a terrorist group set off a radioactive "dirty
bomb."
What is a "dirty bomb"? Has such a dangerous radioactive
weapon ever been used? Who would dream of unleashing
radioactive materials, especially on unprotected and
defenseless civilian targets?
Reports in the U.S. corporate media have described in great
detail that a "dirty bomb" combines conventional
explosives-even dynamite-with radioactive material. An
explosion can spew radiation over a large area.
However, not one of the hundreds of news reports dares to
state the truth: The United States is the only country that has
extensively used radioactive dirty bombs all over the
world.
The Pentagon's "dirty bombs" are made with a core of highly
toxic and radioactive depleted uranium (DU) packed in a
conventional explosive.
By their own admission, the U.S. government has used
thousands of these radioactive bombs in Iraq and
Yugoslavia.
Angry mass movements have forced the U.S. government to
acknowledge that it has test-fired these radioactive weapons at
U.S. bases in Okinawa, Japan, Vieques, Puerto Rico, and south
Korea. The army has also tested these weapons at more than 25
domestic sites, including Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland,
according to a 1995 Army Environmental Policy Institute
report.
Why the Pentagon uses DU
Radioactive waste is not difficult to obtain. It's given
away free to U.S. weapons manufacturers. So it is an enormously
profitable weapon for military contractors.
Uranium is a heavy metal--twice as heavy as lead. Weapons
made with DU have greater range and higher accuracy than
conventional weapons.
The problem is that DU is both toxic and radioactive. It is
also pyrophoric, meaning that it burns fiercely on impact and
is transformed into a fine uranium oxide powder or dust. The
dust particles measure less than 1.5 microns--small enough to
lodge in the lungs and other internal organs. This radioactive
dust can be carried on the wind. It enters the ground water and
food chain.
The U.S. government's own studies have again and again
warned of the health risks of DU exposure. A 1990 report
warned, "Short term effects of high doses can result in death,
while long term effects of low doses have been implicated in
cancer."
The study added, "Aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the
battlefield could be significant with potential radiological
and toxicological effects." The book "Metal of Dishonor,"
published by the International Action Center, reproduces
several of these government reports.
Nevertheless, during the 1991 U.S. war against Iraq, the
Pentagon reportedly fired more than 940,000 uranium-tipped
30-millimeter bullets and more than 14,000 large 120-mm DU
rounds, according to the 1995 U.S. Army Environmental Policy
report. This left behind more than 600,000 pounds of
radioactive waste that will continue to contaminate the soil,
water and air in Iraq.
Of the 600,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Gulf during that
bombing, more than 100,000 became chronically ill with the
wasting malady known as Gulf War Syndrome. Radioactive
poisoning is widely suspected as a primary cause.
In Iraq there has been a shocking 5- to-16-fold increase in
cancers. The children of Iraqi and U.S. Gulf War veterans have
significantly higher rates of congenital birth defects.
On October 3, 2001, the BBC reported that the Department of
Veteran Affairs found that children of Gulf War vets are twice
as likely to be born with birth defects as children of other
soldiers. Female Gulf War vets are three times more likely to
have children with birth defects. The U.S. government has
callously ignored these shocking statistics.
During the 1999 U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, thousands
of rounds of radioactive depleted uranium were again fired. A
year later, reports of a strange increase in cancers among
young European NATO soldiers stationed in Kosovo and Bosnia
caused a political uproar in Europe and demands for an
investigation into the U.S. use of depleted uranium weapons.
This was a top story in Europe for months.
A major article by Robert James Parsons in Le Monde
Diplomatique on March 3, entitled "America's Big Dirty Secret,"
charged that depleted uranium is the heavy metal used in the
enormous bunker bombs that burrow through mountains of rock or
many feet of reinforced concrete to destroy cave complexes.
Le Monde Diplomatique cited a widely distributed report by
Dai Williams, a medical researcher, warning medical
professionals, employees of aid organizations and soldiers
stationed in Afghanistan about the threat of DU
contamination.
The article cites Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Jan.
16 admission that the U.S. had found radiation in Afghanistan.
But Rumsfeld claimed it was from DU warheads belonging to Al
Qaeda. He did not explain how Al Qaeda could have launched
these weapons without planes.
Le Monde further compared the Pentagon's DU weapons of 10
years ago with today's. The amount of DU used has dramatically
increased.
A Gulf War-era T 120-mm anti-tank round has a maximum weight
of 5 kilograms. Today's Raytheon Bunker Buster-GBU-28 can weigh
up to one-and-a-half metric tons.
It is important to remember that during the Cold War the
Pentagon deliberately exposed more than 250,000 U.S. military
personnel to radiation during nuclear tests from 1945 to 1963
in order to study the impact on humans.
According to U.S. Department of Energy reports, thousands of
Marshal Islanders were also callously exposed to radiation and
secretly studied.
All of this was hushed up in the name of "national
security." Any soldier who spoke out was threatened with court
martial and imprisonment.
Finally, after the veterans and their families mobilized and
demanded treatment, a special Congressional bill passed in 1984
acknowledged this crime and promised compensation to the
surviving "Atomic Veterans."
However, according to the National Association of Atomic
Survivors, fewer than 500 veterans ever received any
compensation. The civilians of the Marshal Islands were never
compensated.
Today's soldiers are just as disposable to the Pentagon
generals' genocidal policies.
The Bush administration is cynically trying to use genuine
concern about radiation to whip up a climate of fear and hatred
to justify continuing war and repression. The best way to
combat this propaganda is to expose the Pentagon's own criminal
record.
Reprinted from the July 4, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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