Dissent Mag

by Aljazeera Editors [Excerpted]

The use of Depleted Uranium by the elite perpetrators of the Iraq War is not confined to the total destruction of alleged “terrorists” and “extremists”. Rather, it extends to the destruction of the environment and human life in general in the affected regions. Such areas will be unfit for habitation for millions of years.

Note - video “Depleted Uranium - Iraq“ below the article

In an interview with Ahmed Mansour of Aljazeera, Major Doug Rokke, former chief of Depleted Uranium Project at the Pentagon, testifies to the apparent perpetration of Crimes against Humanity, directed at the whole Iraqi nation, and U.S. soldiers.

Born in Illinois 1949, Professor Doug Rokke joined the U.S. Air Force in 1967, took part in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1971 as a B52 pilot. He obtained his PhD in nuclear physics. He worked until 1996 as a field doctor and specialist in nuclear physics in the U.S. Army. He took part in the 1991 Gulf War, tasked with depleted uranium clean up in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

From March to June 1991, Professor Rokke compiled contaminated equipment from the battlefield and shipped part of it back to the U.S. and supervised the burial of more equipment in Saudi Arabian deserts. He was appointed head of the Depleted Uranium Project in the Pentagon between 1 August 1994 and November 1995. He also worked as a professor of nuclear physics at Jackson University – Alabama until 2000.

Prof Rokke says he suffered the effects of depleted uranium from the first week of the Gulf War in 1991 but did not realise it until March 1995. Tests showed that he had 5000 times the normal level of radiation in his body, enough he says sarcastically, to light up a small village. He is also suffering from problems with breathing, immune system and one eye. He has had 15 surgical operations to his liver as a result of his infection by this uranium syndrome.

Interviewer: At this very critical time, a lot of people are trying to understand and know more about the weapons containing depleted uranium…

Professor Rokke: The announcement is very simple. Uranium munitions kill and destroy everything that they contact. Going back to the (1991) Gulf War and even before, the Pentagon had decided to use weapons that are absolutely efficient in combat. At the completion of the 1991 Gulf War when I was specifically assigned to clean up the uranium mess I received a memorandum, this is a Los Alamos memorandum written by a colonel at Los Alamos national laboratories in Mexico.

In that memorandum, he said “Even though we know there are health and environmental effects, you should make sure that we can always use uranium munitions in combat because they are so effective. And therefore lie about the health and environmental effects of the use of uranium munitions in combat.”

Interviewer: Being the former chief of the depleted uranium project in the Pentagon, what are the risks of using depleted uranium on life and human beings in general?

Professor Rokke: The first thing that we have to understand is that each individual uranium round fired by an Abrams tank is ten pounds of solid uranium contaminated with plutonium, neptunium and americium. On impact, you have a fine uranium outside dust that is generated. This represents about one half of the original mass. So if you have 4500 grams, you have about 2300 grams or 2200 grams that turn into a dust on the outside, they can be inhaled… and then get into the body. When this happens, you have all kinds of serious problems both metal poisoning and radiological effects on the body.

Interviewer: Being one of the victims of depleted uranium, can you describe the symptoms you felt when you were infected?

Professor Rokke: The most significant effect that we noticed was respiratory problems. And the respiratory problems acted like you had a really bad case of bronchitis. Your respiratory system was affected, you couldn’t breathe as well and you started noticing all kinds of serious apparatus effects with your breathing system… The other health effect we saw immediately in ourselves and everybody else was the terrible rash. And the rash that we suspect and which we still have to this day is from the heavy metal poisoning that occurs just as if you would have eaten a litre of any other heavy toxic metal.

The Interviewer: Dr. Rokke, What are the most important symptoms of inhaling depleted uranium?

Professor Rokke: The biggest problem that we had, in addition to the respiratory problems, is cancer which developed in members of our team within eight to nine months. Within two years, additional cancers developed and people started to die. Individuals that we had confirmed had embedded uranium shrapnel deliberately locked in their bodies by the United States Department of Defence did develop tumours in and around that embedded shrapnel. Published research verifies that uranium shrapnel or uranium embedded in the tissue will cause cancer. That we see in any place that uranium has been used, manufactured and processed… in various areas of the United States.

Interviewer: But Michael Kilpatrick, who was responsible for providing medical care to the veterans at the Pentagon, said in a press conference that a study covering 90 infected veterans from the 1991 Gulf War proved that they were not suffering from any disease, whether it be cancer or otherwise. What do you say about this?

Professor Rokke: Dr. Kilpatrick lied to the world. It is very simple. First he stated that 90 individuals were affected … I had well over 100 individuals who were affected. I had another 250 individuals who were absolutely exposed while we were cleaning it up.

Interviewer: Why did your colleagues in the Pentagon lie and for the benefit of whom?

Professor Rokke: The reason that they lie is to avoid any liability for the deliberate use of uranium munitions not only in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, throughout the Balkans and throughout all the sites in the United States. Again the purpose of the war is to kill and to destroy. Uranium munitions are absolutely destructive.

Interviewer: What are the main diseases that can be caused by uranium?

Professor Rokke: The problems that we have are very significant. We have the respiratory problems, all the eye problems, neurological problems, and cancers. What we know today is that the American veterans who participated in the 1991 Gulf War are dying at a rate of over 140 a month here in the United States alone.

Interviewer: Professor Harry Shalimer has said that at least 100,000 of the inhabitants of Basra have been infected with cancer since 1991. Do you have any statistics on the number of infections in these regions?

Professor Rokke: I have not been back to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, but I have talked to Dr. Shalimer and other scientists and physicians involved in this. I have no doubt in my mind that Dr. Shalimer is probably correct. I know for a fact that he has verified uranium in those individuals residing in that region and therefore you can make a direct correlation between those exposures and the health effects that have been documented. Dr. Shalimer again is one of the world’s experts on this, so we must listen to him.

Interviewer: A weapons expert, Dai Williams, in one of our programs said that the ammunition used by the U.S. in the 1991 Gulf War weighed around 5 kilograms, and against Afghanistan they used bombs and ammunition of up 10,000 pounds, and it is expected that they are going to use the same ammunition in Iraq. They even announced that the mother of bombs weighs 10,000 tonnes. If the previous Gulf War left around 400 tonnes of uranium dust, what do you expect will happen to the region this time?

Professor Rokke: What I expect is that we will again see serious health effects in the American soldiers who go there and use it. We will see health effects in all the residents of that region. We will see health effects in the Iraqi soldiers who will be the targets of direct uranium used by U.S. forces.

I must repeat and make this very clear, as the head of the project to clean up uranium munitions during the 1991 Gulf War, and as the director of the Depleted Uranium Project for the Department of Defence who did the research, and as a DU casualty, the use of uranium munitions during warfare is a crime against God, is a crime against humanity, and should be considered a war crime.

You cannot take solid uranium radioactive waste, throw it in anybody’s backyard and refuse to provide medical care and complete the environmental clean-up that is required to sustain the health and safety of the citizens of the Earth.

Interviewer: Do you think depleted uranium is considered a weapon of mass destruction or a nuclear weapon?

Professor Rokke: The United Nations on 10 September 2001 did rule that uranium munitions were considered a weapon of mass destruction. The European Parliament has issued a proclamation that uranium munitions should be banned from use in the world.

Interviewer: Do you think that using depleted uranium against human beings in general falls under the category of crimes of war?

Professor Rokke: Absolutely, because in the United States you cannot even take 500 grams of solid uranium and throw it in anybody’s backyard without going to jail. Therefore, what right has the United States, England or any other nation has to take hundreds and hundreds of tons of uranium and throw them in somebody else’s backyard, refuse them medical care as they have done now for decades and also refuse to clean up the environment.

Interviewer: How long can these areas remain contaminated?

Professor Rokke: The contamination will remain in the area unless it is physically and totally removed, for 4.5 billion years and beyond.

Interviewer: Will these areas remain contaminated for 4.5 billion years?

Professor Rokke: Unless it is physically removed according to the procedures and processes that I have developed for the U.S. Department of Defence.

Interviewer: Those contaminated areas, are they fit for human life now?

Professor Rokke: They are not. The U.S. Department of Defence, in the common test training for use of uranium munitions, specifically states that all American soldiers must wear full respirator and skin protection within 25 to 50 metres of each and every vehicle that is struck by uranium munitions.

Interviewer: This means that there are more than 20 million human beings in Iraq who are subject to being hit by uranium, and if Iraq will be hit by uranium munitions it will be unfit for human habitation. Does this mean that the United states will eliminate a total country from the surface of the earth?

Professor Rokke: That is an absolute possibility. When you destroy the infrastructure, you use all the types of munitions and you contaminate air, water and soil. That is an absolute possibility.

Interviewer: What are the symptoms so that if they appear on the inhabitants of those areas they can tell they have been exposed?

Professor Rokke: The first symptom that will show up ….. will be the respiratory problems. It acts like a chronic bronchitis. The second thing that you will probably see is the rashes.

Interviewer: The infections that showed up in the south of Iraq and the deformities in the newborn, do you expect these to last for 4.5 billion years? Is there a possibility that in the future generations more complications will come up?

Professor Rokke: Absolutely… Again as along as individuals are being exposed to uranium, we know that the changes in the RNA in DNA, the changes that occur genetically are causing all of these birth effects. We have seen those birth effects in American soldiers who were exposed. We are seeing those birth effects all over the world where uranium exposures have occurred.

Interviewer: Can the insistence of the United States to use this ammunition again against human beings and against Iraq be considered a new war crime?

Professor Rokke: Anybody who uses uranium munitions in war must understand that it is a crime against God and it is a crime against humanity… Yes, it is. When you deliberately and wilfully spread radioactive waste, ignore the health effects and refuse to clean it up, that is a crime against God and a crime against humanity.

Interviewer: What do you think the size of the disaster that will result from using hundreds of tonnes of uranium in the war against Iraq? If this is the picture given for the past 10 years, what will be from the result on the region of using uranium again?

Professor Rokke: If we have the same exposures and we have extensive use we can estimate that the number of casualties and the percentage of people in the area…that is going to be 30% again. That is the numbers, we cannot change the statistics. We cannot change the epidemiological effects of all of the contaminations that results from war.

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VIDEO:

Depleted Uranium - Iraq