Ex-military director speaks out Peace activist says U.S. using uranium in warfare

PEORIA - A former military director on Saturday accused the United States of war crimes for its use of depleted uranium in warfare.

Peace activist Dr. Doug Rokke, a Gulf War veteran and former director of the U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium Project, presented his thoughts on the military's alleged use of depleted uranium to about 50 people in the basement auditorium of the Peoria Public Library's main Downtown branch.

Rokke's presentation was sponsored by the local chapter of Peace Action, which is dedicated to creating a world "free from violence and war," according to its Web site, www.peace-action.org.

Rokke, who has a Ph.D in physics and technology education, claimed the U.S. government continues to use uranium against the mandates of the United Nations.

"The United States Department of Defense continues to use uranium emissions," he said. "It is a radioactive defense item, it's a dirty bomb."

Rokke said the government continues to use uranium because of its effectiveness. "It's incredibly effective as a weapons system."

By the Office of Homeland Security's own definition, use of depleted uranium is radiological warfare and thus a war crime, Rokke said.

"It's an act of terror," he said. "It's in their own guidelines. I don't think they realized what they did when they did it."

Depleted uranium exposure causes a variety of symptoms and, Rokke claimed, is a contributing factor in Gulf War syndrome, a malady among veterans of that military action against Iraq in 1991.

Once uranium is used in an area, studies show the particulate matter can travel at least 30 miles, Rokke said. Those in the area can continue to infect others as well.

"Any military personnel that has been near the contamination will bring it back," Rokke said. "We have proven incidents when contamination has been brought back."

"You cannot decontaminate clothing," Rokke said. "We could never, ever get it down to permissible levels."

Furthermore, Rokke said there is no way to treat exposure if it is not dealt with in the first 24 hours.

"I mean, you can do basic stabilization," Rokke said. "When the rash breaks out, the doctor gives me a salve."

Even on the other side of the globe from war, central Illinois residents have been exposed, Rokke said.

"Have troops in Illinois gone over and been exposed? Absolutely," Rokke said. "Have central Illinois people died as a result of this? Absolutely."

This web page tells me more than I need to know about Mr. Rokke.

Muslims For Kucinich http://www.muhajabah.com/muslims4kucinich/archives/2004/03/congressman_den.php

A resource on the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat Dennis Kucinich and on his continuing political activities

« Rachel Corrie | Main | Illinois results » Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Dr. Doug Rokke hold press conference about Depleted Uranium

The following is a transcript of Kucinich's press conference about depleted uranium, with Dr. Doug Rokke, a DU expert.

***

"A nation's military personnel cannot willfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions. To do so is a crime against humanity." - Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project.

Congressman Kucinich held a press conference March 15, 2004 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to detail little-known information about the nuclear content and life-threatening effects of U.S. munitions that are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan and which have been used in other military conflicts beginning with the 1991 Gulf War.

Dennis was joined by Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, retired Army combat officer, and one of the world's leading experts on the use of munitions containing radioactive depleted uranium.

Continue reading this speech by following the extended entry link

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Dennis Kucinich: One of the most serious abuses of human rights has come through the Pentagon's development of, production of, and use of, depleted uranium munitions. These munitions have created an unending toll of casualties wherever they've been used, and they have created for the United States a great moral dilemma about when we are ready to recognize that the mere use of such munitions constitutes an offense against humanity. And when are we going to recognize our responsibility to not just stop making these munitions but to help create the cleanup wherever they've been used, to help provide medical care for any person who's been adversely affected by it, and to do the long range studies that must be done in order to calculate the human health effects and to ameliorate those effects in the long term.

We're talking about something that will never go away, but if our commitment is to change the direction of America's use of these munitions, and to stop it, then we can begin to repair the great damage that has been done, at least to try to mitigate it, we're not even close to doing that right now.

Very few people in this country have made as solid a contribution to inspecting the seriousness of this and to addressing it in a forthright way, as has the person I'm about to introduce. So I'd like to at this moment, if Dr. Doug would come up here. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Doug Rokke.

Dr. Doug Rokke: Key things that need to happen when General Schwartzkopf assigned to clean up the depleted uranium mess following Gulf War one in the service of the depleted uranium project director from the Army. We rapidly realized that with the use of uranium munitions we did not have the ability to clean up the contamination. We did not have the ability to provide medical care for any of the casualties, whether they be U.S. forces, friendly fire, or any of the coalition forces or any of what we call the enemy forces. They're all God's children. And when you can't provide medical, and you're tearing up the environment, and you deliberately contaminate air, water, and soil, you have a problem and it must be resolved.

The essential things that must be done today, the United States Department of Defense and Department of Veteran Affairs has medical directives requiring medical care for all DU casualties within 72 hours. They are not complying with that. Residents and communities that were involved in Gulf War one have died from exposures. The Department of Defense has specific guidelines, Army regulations, Department of Defense Regulations, requiring complete isolation, cleanup and disposal of radioactive contamination. It is not happening as we speak.

Video evidence, photographic evidence, on-sight investigations, verify not only here in the United States, but right across the line over in Jefferson proving ground has not been cleaned up, in Bagdhad, Iraq, all over, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Vieques, Puerto Rico, it's not cleaned up.

Training and education, you need to provide total solid education and training for all individuals who come in contact with low-level radioactive materials and the effects of it, it's not being done. Proper radiation equipment, radiation detection equipment, is not distributed. The Japanese just deployed, into Iraq in a contaminated area, with no equipment, either to detect the contamination or to protect their troops from exposure.

Medical personnel are not being trained properly to provide medical care, even though it's absolutely required.

This is a single depleted uranium round, ladies and gentleman. This is an aluminum model of a one-tank round that's fired by an Abrams tank. This is aluminum, if this was actual this thing would be over ten pounds of solid uranium, we know it would be contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, americium. You fire one of these rounds and 40% breaks up into dust and oxides that can be inhaled, ingested, absorbed, and contaminate air, water, and soil.

The United States Army Environmental Policy Institute which is co-located here confirmed that in their 1995 report. They stated, "There is no way to reduce the toxicity of depleted uranium munitions." And they ignore it and continue it today. The question is, when do we say "enough" and stop contaminating air, water, and soil, not only with uranium, but all the contaminants of war?

Dennis Kucinich: Thank you very much, Doug, for your courage and your commitment, and your relentlessness in alerting America and the world to the dangers of the use of depleted uranium, and in laying out the approach that we have to take in order to achieve a new direction.

Posted by Al-Muhajabah, a Kucinich supporter, at March 17, 2004 04:05 AM in

I have also this: American Thinker (04/12/04) did an expose on this bunkum on Uranium:

Depleted uranium: the saga continues. Read here for details on WHY the Depleted Uranium (DU) Fight is bunkum.

While Dietz’s bio conforms to the account in the Daily News article, it’s interesting that his bio is also posted on the University Cork College (UCC) Palestine Solidarity Campaign which is affiliated with the Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

It is quite clear, that the “investigation” funded by the New York Daily News has been stacked with experts that are openly hostile to the US and UK effort in the War on Terror, and, if given their way, would essentially give away our war fighting capability. Depleted uranium armor and DU munitions have been so successful for the US and UK that other nations, including potential adversaries, are now using, or are developing DU munitions and armor plating. The anti-American left wants to not only deprive our soldiers of a weapon that works extremely well, but they also manipulate and deceive our own soldiers to further their efforts.

And also: from "TheAge.com.au" of 04/15/04:

Japanese hostages freed. The three Japanese taken hostage last week are Noriaki Imai, 18, who wanted to look into the effects of depleted uranium weapons, freelance journalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, and aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34 .

And from my notes, dated 04/14/04:

Frontpagemag carries, today, coverage of The Humanitarian Law Project. "most of the media described the HLP as a “human rights” group in its coverage earlier this year. HLP could better be described as a vehicle of the most extreme elements of the pro-terror Left – and of the United Nations, which are increasingly becoming indistinguishable from each other. As a United Nations nongovernmental organization (NGO), the HLP has consultative status, receives its funding from the UN and reports to the UN’s commission on Human Rights.

Alia Vibe: The following quote stopped me in my tracks: The group was also behind well-publicized international accusations that the U.S. might have committed “atrocities” in both Iraq wars by using bombs tipped with depleted uranium. (However, HLP has never been able to produce any evidence to this effect.)

Refer to my blog posting of April 5: Army to test N.Y. Guard unit: Hillary demands that all veterans of Iraq get checked . This quote:

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), after learning of The News' investigation, blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly screening soldiers returning from Iraq. "We can't have people coming back with undiagnosed illnesses," Clinton said. "We have to have a before-and-after testing program for our soldiers." "Now, Matos, 37, believes his symptoms may be the result of radioactive dust he inhaled from spent American shells made from depleted uranium.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.