- 25 nov 2006
Ayman Awni Muheisen 25
Walid 'Amer Darwish Abu al-Qambaz 27
Two killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza
Palestinian medical sources in in the Gaza Strip reported that two Palestinians were killed, on Saturday at night and several others injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted a vehicle in Gaza City. The attack took place in Al Shujaeyya neighborhood, east of Gaza city.
Dr. Muawiya Hassanen, head of the Emergency Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reported that the two were identified as Ayman Mheisin, and Waleed Abu Al Qonboz, 28.
Mheisin died of his wounds at a Gaza hospital while Al Qonboz died instantly, Dr. Hassanen added.
In a separate attack also on Sunday at night, fighters of the Salah Ed Deen brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees survived an Israeli assassination attack in Gaza city.
The fighters stopped their vehicle at a red traffic light near Al Azhar University in Gaza City when the Israeli air force fired a missile at them; the group managed to flee their vehicle before the missile hit it.
Furthermore, Israeli troops shelled several areas in Beit Hanoun, in the norther part of the Gaza Strip. The Saturday night shelling targeted an area close to the Agricultural College; damage was reported, no injuries.
Meanwhile, the Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for firing homemade shells at the Israeli Negev town of Sderot.
Five fighters were injured after the Israeli army fired a missile at them in Sha'asha'a area, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The fighters were firing homemade shells at Israeli areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/22888 21 apr 2012, 08:36 , Respect -
Maria 27 nov 2006
'Abd a-Razeq Mahmoud Bachar Nasser 22
Khairieh Ahmad Muhammad Nazzal 52
Fighter, woman killed near Jenin
Palestinian sources in Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank report on Monday morning that one fighter and one woman were killed in an Israeli invasion to the nearby town of Qabatia.
The sources stated that Abdul-Raziq Mahmoud Bakir, 22, one of the leaders of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and Fatima Nazzal, 55, were killed by Israeli military fire after the army invaded the town.
Palestinian security sources reported that fierce clashes took place on Monday at dawn after the army invaded the town.
The Brigades confirmed that Bakir is one of its members and vowed retaliation.
Abu Mojahid, media spokesperson of the Brigades, said that resistance factions declared a ceasefire that was conditional with an Israeli seizure of attacks and assassinations.
“But today, Israel violated the first day of ceasefire and assassinated one of our fighters”, Abu Mojahid stated, “This crime will not pas unpunished”.
Abu Mojahid added that his group will not act without consulting with the rest of the Palestinian factions, but demanded a suitable response to this assassination.
The fighter and the woman were killed after 50 military vehicles invaded Qabatia from several directions while military sharpshooters topped several buildings.
The army claimed that soldiers were fired at in the town and responded by firing back at the source of fire.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, soldiers took prisoner fifteen residents in several invasions to cities, villages and refugee camps.
On Sunday, one fighter of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, died of earlier wounds suffered in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
The fighter, Yahia Al Qassas, 25, was injured last month during clashes between resistance fighters and soldiers invading Al Faraheen area, in Khan Younis.
He was transferred to an Egyptian hospital where he was announced dead on Sunday.
Moreover, one child was shot and injured on Sunday evening in Azzoun town, near Jenin. The child, Mousa Saleem, 15, was injured in his leg.
http://www.imemc.org/article/22898
Fatima Mahmoud Ahmed
Mahmoud Abdul Razik Baker Nasser
Israeli forces kill woman as she attempts to save man bleeding at her doorstep
A woman in Jenin gave her life on Monday to save a young man. Israeli forces shot Mahmoud Abdul Razik Baker Nasser in front of Fatima Mahmoud Ahmed Shriem's northern West Bank home. The women of Qabatia Village, just to the south of Jenin, sang for Fatima as they walked in her funeral procession.
Fatima died trying to pull the young man, Mahmoud, to safety. Medical sources in Dr. Khaled Suleiman Memorial Hospital in Jenin said that she died from blood loss, not from the gunshots. Israeli forces kept the area under siege for hours. No one could leave their homes and ambulances could not reach the victims.
Her husband, Mahmoud Hafez, stood still after the mourners carrying his wife's body had taken their rest. He tried to control his tears, but they fell heavily. “Where is the 'calm,' the 'cease-fire,' when they continue to kill in cold blood, leaving bodies to slowly bleed to death.”
The incident occurred during an Israeli invasion of the Jenin area village. A number of Israeli soldiers had broken into homes, using them as sniper towers. Members of the armed resistance from Qabatia tried to fend off the invaders, but to no avail.
A leader of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, said that this is one of the ambush tactics the Israelis have been re-employing as of late. "They hide inside a house and then open fire when no one knows they were there in the first place."
Fatima's husband said that his wife heard the sounds of a young man injured at the gate of their home. “She started screaming and rushed to save him. It was clear she was not a member of the armed resistance, so that cannot be the reason the Israelis use to explain this murder.”
His words choked and he collapsed after saying, “The Israeli soldiers continued their shooting. They wouldn't stop.”
http://www.imemc.org/article/22925 21 apr 2012, 08:36 , Respect -
Maria 21 apr 2012, 08:36 , Respect -
Maria 30 nov 2006
PCHR: “Former Israeli Chief Of Staff Moshe Ya'alon spared arrest in New Zealand”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza reported on Thursday that the Former Israeli Cheif of Staff, Moshe Ya'alon, had to flee out of New Zealand this week after an arrest warrant of war crimes was issued by a New Zealand court after several lawyer contacted the police to urge Ya'alon's arrest.
The warrant was issued on Tuesday when a resident, in cooperation with local and International Human Rights
Organizations filed an appeal to the court to arrest Ya'alon who was on a private visit to the country.
The appeal depended on an incident that took place in 2002, when Yaalon ordered the army to assassinate a Hamas leader, Salah Shihada, by shelling his house.
The shelling caused excessive damage, and 15 civilians, including several children were killed.
The PCHR stated that he Auckland District Court issued a warrant for Ya'alon's arrest on charges of war crimes stating a "suspicion of committing a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949," a criminal offense in New Zealand under the Geneva Conventions Act 1958 and International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000.
The court issued the warrant after several lawyers contacted the police to urge Ya'alon's arrest.
It is worth mentioning that Shaul Mofaz, the former Israeli Minister of Defense, and a senior military officer known as Doron Almog, escaped arrest warrants in the U.K for similar offenses.
The PCHR argues that Ya'alon is responsible for military actions that constitute extensive violations to the principles of Human Rights and are considered war crimes.
The warrant against Ya'alon was cancelled at the last minute by the Local Justice Ministry despite the decision of District Court Judge Avinash Deobhakta, who ordered the arrest of Ya'alon.
http://www.imemc.org/article/22994 21 apr 2012, 08:36 , Respect -
Maria 30 nov 2006
Shadi 'Issam Nayef Ba Shamsah 17
Palestinian youth killed, two injured by Israeli military fire near Nablus
Palestinian medical sources in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Tuesday evening that a 17-year old youth was shot and killed by Israeli military fire in Aqraba village, near Nablus.
Shadi Isam Younis, 17, was shot dead after the army invaded the village as several youth hurled stones at the invading forces.
The army fired rounds of live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets and gas bombs at the youth.
Two youth, identified as Dia’ Abu Mazin, 18, and Mustafa Jamil, 17, were moderately injured.
An Israeli army source claimed that soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who hurled firebombs and a pipe bomb.
http://www.imemc.org/article/22997
Shadi Isam Nayef Bani-Shams, 17,
of Beita, near Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen while throwing stones during an incursion.
21 apr 2012, 08:36 , Respect -
Maria 1 dec 2006
Bashar Al Ja'bari, 22
Army shoots and kills a resident of Hebron
One Palestinian resident was shot and killed in the old town area of the southern West Bank city of Hebron after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers on Friday at dawn.
Bashar Al Ja'bari, 22, was going to pray the morning prayers in the Abraham Mosque, also known as the Tomb of Patriarchs, located in the old city, when soldiers stationed at a military checkpoint at the mosque entrance shot Al Ja'bari in the head and killed him.
Palestinian medical sources in the city that Al Ja'bari was killed after sustaining multiple hits with live rounds in the chest and the head. He arrived to the public hospital in the city dead, the sources stated.
Army sources said that soldiers opened fire and killed a Palestinian boy who tried to attack their post with a cocktail Molotov bomb near the Abraham mosque in the old city of Hebron on Friday at dawn; the sources added that troops took prisoner 29 residents in pre dawn invasions to several west Bank cities.
http://www.imemc.org/article/23001 21 apr 2012, 08:37 , Respect -
Maria 2 dec 2006
Ayman Abu Mahdi, 10
Gaza child dies of wounds sustained during Israeli attacks last month
Ayman Abu Mahdi, 10, from Jabalia town, in the norther part of the Gaza strip died on Saturday morning of wounds sustained during Israeli army attacks last month.
The child was shot in the head by an Israeli army sharp-shooter during a military invasion to the town on November 25th, and was moved to an Israeli hospital, medical sources reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/23018
Ayman Abdul Qader abu-Mahdi, 10,
of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Nov. 25 from IDF gunfire while playing near his home.
21 apr 2012, 08:37 , Respect -
Maria 3 dec 2006
Jamil 'Abd al-Karim Jamil al-Jabaji 14Child killed by military fire in Nablus
Palestinian medical and security sources in Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, reported on Sunday afternoon that Israeli troops shot and killed a 15-year old child in the nearby Askar refugee camp.
The child, Jamil Jabaji, was shot by a round of live ammunition in his head after the army, invading the camp, fired at youth hurling stones at them, a medical source at Rafidia hospital in Nablus reported.
The child was shot in Al Talla area, close to a main road that passes near the camp. Israeli sources reported that the army made not comment on the incident.
Five Palestinian were killed since Israel and the Palestinians declared a truce last week, but Israeli officials insist that the truce is only in the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian factions said that they will not agree to a truce that does not include all of the occupied territories.
http://www.imemc.org/article/23026
Jamil Abdul-Karim Jamil Jabji, 15
of Askar refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire from a jeep to his head while throwing stones.
Jamil 'Abd al-Karim Jamil al-Jabaji 21 apr 2012, 08:37 , Respect -
Maria 4 dec 2006
Mahmoud Muhammad Ahmad 'Abd al-'Aal, 24
resident of Tulkarm, killed on 04.12.2006 in Tulkarm. Did not participate in hostilities when killed. Killed when trying to escape from an undercover unit that came to arrest him.
21 apr 2012, 08:37 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2006
Loutfi Ameen Abdul Latif Abu Sadah
21 apr 2012, 08:38 , Respect -
Maria 21 apr 2012, 08:38 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2006
The DIME Bomb: Yet Another Genotoxic Weapon, Part I
By James Brooks, Al-Jazeerah
It's been almost five months since the first report that Israeli drone aircraft have been dropping a “mystery weapon” on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since then, news media around the world have run stories depicting the strange and “horrific” wounds inflicted by the new bomb. The international press has spoken with Palestinian doctors and medics who say Israel's new device is a kind of chemical weapon that has significantly increased the fatality rate among the victims of Israeli attacks. (1) (2)
In mid-October, Italian investigators reported forensic evidence that suggests the new weapon may also represent the near future of US “counterinsurgency warfare”. Combined with photographs of the victims and testimony from attending doctors, this evidence points to the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). (3)
DIME is an LCD (”low collateral damage”) weapon developed at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Publicly, it is slated for initial deployment in 2008. DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).(4-11)
It is unfortunate that the US media have virtually blacked out the story of Israel's new weapon, not least because our own military may soon be using it in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story might also have told us something about the grossly disproportionate brutality of Israel's war on the Palestinian people—reason enough for the media to suppress it. (12)
Thanks to the intrepid Italians, the story could even have introduced Americans to their government's DIME weapons program. This three-part article will ask whether Israel is ‘testing’ US DIME bombs in the Gaza Strip, and explore the workings, dangers, and projected use of DIME weapons and their roots in depleted uranium (DU) research. These parallels will lead us to consider DIME in its historical context, as the latest innovation in the US military's long-running development of genotoxic weapons.
“They cannot return to life again”
The first reports about ‘Israel's new weapon’ came from Dr Joma Al-Saqqa, chief of the emergency unit at Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa. Dr. Al-Saqqa said that Israel was using “a new ‘chemical’ weapon” and its siege was “a live exercise on a new ammunition that, so far, has resulted in killing 50 Palestinians and injuring 200.” He observed that, “despite the damage in internal soft tissue in the bodies of injured people, the fragments were not detected by X-ray. In other words, they had disappeared or dissolved inside the body.” (13)
“There were usually entry and exit wounds,” Dr. Al-Saqqa reported. “When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was difficult to determine.
A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality.” (14)
The effects of the weapon seemed “radioactive”. (15) According to Palestine News Network, Dr. Al-Saqqa “confirmed that there were dozens of wounded legs and arms. Many of them had been burned from the inside, and distorted to the point that they cannot return to life again.”(16)
“When the shrapnel hit[s] the body, it causes very strong burns that destroy the tissues around the bones… it burns and destroys internal organs, like the liver, kidneys, and the spleen and other organs and makes saving the wounded almost impossible. As a surgeon, I have seen thousands of wounds during the Intifada, but nothing was like this weapon.”(17)
However, Dr. Al-Saqqa could not analyze the chemistry of the bizarre wounds. On the first day of the siege, June 27, Israel had conveniently destroyed Gaza's only criminal laboratory. (18) Despite his pleas to the “international community” to investigate and lend assistance in treating the victims, “no one has lifted a finger”, the doctor was quoted in mid-July. “What we found were journalists who came to take pictures, but as for the medical community, nothing.” (19)
On August 3, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported that Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd had visited Dr. Al-Saqqa's hospital, “where the staff is struggling to deal with wounds resulting in an unusually high number of amputations.” Commissioner AbuZayd commented that “what we saw in Al-Shifa…was rather horrific.” (20)
According to Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International), “75 per cent of war-wounded patients admitted at one hospital needed amputations” following an Israeli attack on Gaza City. (21)
The World Health Organization was reportedly considering an investigation into the injuries. Physicians for Human Rights—Israel “agreed to take away fragments of tissue from the bodies of Palestinians killed during the recent military operations in Gaza for possible analysis in Israel but urged the medics to seek an international investigation.” (22)
Tungsten in Tissue Samples: A DIME Weapon?
On October 19, Italy's Rai24news televised an investigative report that supplied crucial new information. The Italian investigators had tissue samples from the victims in Gaza analyzed by Dr. Carmela Vaccaio at University Parma. Dr. Vaccaio reportedly found “a very high concentration of carbon and the presence of unusual materials, such as copper, aluminum and tungsten.”
The doctor concluded that her “findings could be in line with the hypothesis that the weapon in question is DIME.”
Rai24news reporters also talked to Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, former chief of the IDF's weapons development program. General Ben-Israel appeared to be familiar with DIME weapons. He explained that, “one of the ideas is to allow those targeted to be hit without causing damage to bystanders or other persons.” (23)
The US Air Force refers to this emerging realm of weaponry as FLM (Focused Lethality Munitions). FLM is expected to provide the ‘weapons of choice’ for targeting “terrorists hiding among civilians”, as a cheerleading Wall Street Journal article put it. (24)
With “focused lethality [and] higher energy materials…nano particles, intelligent fuzing, [and] mass focus lethality”, the Air Force “will be able to strike effectively, wherever and whenever necessary, with minimal collateral damage.” Ominously, the military thinks these weapons will allow it to target sites “previously off limits to the warfighter.” (25) (26) (PDF)
This warfare of the future is reminiscent of what Israel has been doing for years, but with one-ton bombs, 155-mm artillery shells, and tank-fired antipersonnel flechette bombs. Are FLM weapons like DIME an improvement? Or will they actually increase civilian casualties and suffering, and mimic depleted uranium weapons by inducing disease and genetic damage in their victims? These disturbing questions will be explored in the next installment of this article.
References:
1) Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza Ma’an News, 7/10/2006
4) Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) GlobalSecurity.org, 10/18/2006
5) Abstract: Potential late health effects of depleted uranium and tungsten used in armor-piercing munitions: comparison of neoplastic transformation and genotoxicity with the known carcinogen nickel Miller, AC, et al, PubMed, 11/26/2006
6) Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metal-tungsten alloy particles: induction of genotoxic effects Miller, AC, et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press
7) Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloys Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI)
8) Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay Miller, AC, et al, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Issue 91, 2002 pp. 246-252 (PDF)
9) Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats Kalinich et al, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 113, Number 6, June 2005
10) Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) By Miller, AC, et al, SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004
11) Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring By Alexandra C. Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006
15) Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources Palestine News Network, 7/13/2006
16) ibid.
17) Doctors Report Unusual Weapon Used in Gaza Pacifica/Free Speech Radio News 7/11/2006
19) Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources Palestine News Network, 7/13/2006
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27a/308.html
21 apr 2012, 08:38 , Respect -
Maria 5 dec 2006
Part 2 also read
“Horriffic” wounds in Gaza may be warfare of the future
In early July, shortly after the beginning of Israel’s bloody military siege of the Gaza Strip, reports began to appear that Israeli forces were using a new weapon that inflicted strange and untreatable wounds, and signifcantly increased the death tolls of Israel’s attacks. (27) ( 28)
Italian investigators have reported evidence that the unidentifed Israeli weapon is probably Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME, a socalled LCD (“low collateral damage”) weapon developed by the United States Air Force. (29)
DIME bombs blast a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered heavymetal tungsten alloy(HMTA). Studies indicate that HMTA embedded in the body disrupts biochemistry and rapidly causes cancer. Like depleted uranium (DU), HMTA is genotoxic—it is capable of inflicting genetic mutations. (30-36)
Publicly slated for deployment in 2008, DIME bombs are small butunusually powerful. The carbon fiber casings make “more of the blast energy…available as blast as opposed to being absorbed in [a] steel case”.
The carbon reportedly breaks into “thousands of harmless fibers” to
prevent unintended casualties from casing shrapnel. (37)
The ‘footprint’ of the DIME blast is much smaller than a conventional bomb’s, because gravity and air resistance quickly drag the dense, finely powdered “micro-shrapnel” to the ground. The blast radius is reportedly as small as 25 feet. (38) (39)
DIME is part of the Air Force’s Focused Lethality Munitions(FLM) program, which is expected to “allow” the targeting of “terrorists” wherever they are, even in places “previously of limits to the warfighter.” (40)
The ideal of FLM is to reliably kill every human within the blast zone—one way or another. It is ‘total war’ on a 50-foot circle, within which deaths are not admitted as collateral, but purchased as insurance. Israel’s new weapon “slices” of its victims’ legs, leaving “signs of heat and burns near the point of the amputation”.
It’s “as if a saw was used to cut through the bone”, according to Dr. Habas al-Wahid, head of the ER at Gaza’s Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital. (41)
Viewing photographs of the living and dead Palestinian victims of this device, many of whom are children, we notice patches of darkened but unburned skin, possibly where metal powder was driven into and/or through the skin by blast force. A child’s torso is peppered with holes,some of which, judging from doctors’ reports, probably tunnel through to exit wounds in the back.
Te skin and muscle of one victim is ripped into a blood-encrusted pulp, as if blasted at close range with tiny bird-shot. Some of the corpses are unrecognizable. Most of the recent photos of “strange” wounds from Gaza appear to be consistent with what is known about DIME weapons. (42)
The area of a DIME blast should be treated with caution until it has been decontaminated (assuming this is possible). Depending on the local HMTA concentration, soil in the blast area may remain barren for anindefinite period of time, or it may grow plants internally contaminated with HMTA. (43) (44)
The “who knew?” charade
In the scientifc literature on tungsten and its alloys, the toxicity of HMTA stands apart. Tis formula (roughly 9 parts tungsten and one part nickel and cobalt or iron) damages DNA even when powders of the metals are simply mixed together. (30) (31) (35)
Implanting four tiny bits of weapons-grade HMTA in lab mice induced terminal cancer in 100 percent of the subjects. A powdered HMTA recipe was tumor-generating and capable of “genotoxic effects”. At least one experiment found parallels in the way DU and HTMA attack DNA.
The results of another suggested that HTMA may pass its genetic damage down to the next generation. (34) (31) (35) (36)
HTMA may be much more carcinogenic than DU when it is embeddedin the body—as intended. “Tumors developed rapidly” in rats implanted with pellets of HTMA, but researchers “did not observe tumor formation in the DU-implanted rats.
”Multiple syndromes of heavy metal poisoning have also been attributed to this alloy, including polycythemia, which can be induced by cobalt overdose. Because HTMA contains far too little cobalt to cause the disease by itself, researchers suspected a synergistic effect among orbetween the metals. (34)
In a 2005 article reviewing the “status of health concerns” about depleted uranium and “surrogate metals” such as HTMA, three scientistsat the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) wrote that “medical and political controversies surrounding the use of DU” had spurred “a search for substitute metals in armor-penetrating munitions.” (45)
“[N]ew alloys of tungsten/nickel/cobalt and tungsten/nickel/iron… rival DU in armor-penetrating performance”, and are “among the leading candidates to replace DU in selected munitions”. Some of this ordnance “has already been deployed, although on a relatively small scale.”
The article then reviews the science detailing the alarming health risks of HMTA, much of it conducted by the authors, whom we thankf or their work. It then attempts to explain how the military’s favorite“surrogate metal” turned out to be almost as genotoxic as DU, and probably more carcinogenic:
“In many ways the development of substitutes for DU in munitions has
Followed a pattern similar to that for DU deployment, in that incomplete toxicological information was available prior to their release…it was
assumed that many years of industrial use of tungsten and alloys suchas tungsten carbide…meant they could be used as safely in armaments.”
We infer that it was reasonable for the military to deploy DU weapons, because the toxicological information was “incomplete”. It’s a strangescientifc rigor that requires us to know exactly how a known poison works before we stop giving it to people.
The cold fact is that there never was a scientifcally valid reason to “assume” that depleted uranium could be used “safely in armaments”.
Quite the opposite; as we shall see in part three, the Army realized more
than 60 years ago that finely powdered uranium products could make extremely potent antipersonnel weapons. (46)
We currently have “incomplete toxicological information” about HTMA, but for more than fifteen years we have had clear warnings aboutthe health risks of combining these metals. US weapons scientists should have known as early as 1992 that mixing cobalt with tungsten could greatly increase the resulting alloy’s cancer potential. (47) (48)
It is hardly news that nickel is carcinogenic and genotoxic, and specialists have long noted that heavy metal alloys tend to unpredictably amplify the toxicities of their component metals. With this kind of “incomplete” information at hand, could military scientists have reasonably “assumed” that nickel would be a “safe” addition to HMTA?
Concerns have been voiced about tungsten sport ammunition for several years. Tungsten alloy bullets, some also containing nickel and co-balt (for superior hardness), were found to pose potential environmental hazards in several studies.
A probable link between industrial tungsten and leukemia has been identifed. Compared to these fndings, however, the toxicity of HTMA may be of a different order. (43) (44)
The “who knew?” apologia offered by the AFRRI researchers asks usto assume that the scientists who developed DIME weapons proceeded in sheer ignorance of the existing science. They were so incompetent that they merely “assumed” that they could use any tungsten alloy.
Does this implausibility jibe with the rest of the picture? A multibillion dollar military weapons program is stung by the “controversies” surrounding its toxic DU-uranium weapons, and is under pressure to produce an expedient alternative.
Would this program’s scientists havebeen allowed to be so cavalier about consulting the literature? Wouldthe replacement metal be chosen on blind faith, without bothering toconduct even simple studies of its potential health impacts?
Logically, we must conclude that the military developed HTMA in the knowledge that it could have signifcant carcinogenic and genotoxiceffects. Did they “assume” that saying “tungsten is safer than DU” would take care of the matter?
Perhaps relatively non-toxic tungsten carbide, famed for its hardnessand cutting ability, would not have sufficed for the purposes of the DIME bomb.
Focused Lethality Munitions like DIME must kill all of their victims. Slicing of their arms and legs is not enough.
The last installment of this article will trace the roots of HMTA in depleted uranium and decades of US warfare with poisonous, DNA-damaging powders.
Then we will return to Gaza to consider the damage done, and the damage to come, if the warmakers have their way. 21 apr 2012, 08:38 , Respect -
Part 3
The human genome: Target or innocent bystander?
Since early July, Israeli forces have been using a new weapon in theGaza Strip that inflicts strange and deadly wounds. Doctors and medics say the unidentifed device has signifcantly increased fatalities from Israel’s attacks. (49) (50)
In the frst two parts of this article we reviewed evidence that Israel’s new weapon may be Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), a “low collateral damage” weapon developed by the US Air Force. The DIME bomb’s “micro-shrapnel” is reportedly made of HMTA, a tungsten alloy that disrupts body biochemistry, damages the immune system, rapidlycauses cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic). (51–56)
The road to dime
DIME weapons are “spin-offs” from the military’s “bunker buster” research. Initially, “bunker busters” were made with depleted uranium (DU), which had already been used in armor-piercing bombs, bullets, and artillery shells. (57)
The former director of the US Army’s Depleted Uranium project, Dr. Douglas Rokke, warns us that DU is an “illegal…radioactive toxic mate-rial”, the use of which “is absolutely unacceptable, and a crime againsthumanity.” (58)
During Gulf War I, US forces deployed more than 300 tons of DU in Iraq.
A few years later, more was dropped during Operation Desert Fox. Iraqi doctors reported alarming rises in the incidence of cancer, leukemia, and birth deffects, in clusters closely correlated with US bombsites.
Scientists found strong links between DU and Gulf War Syndrome, which is slowly killing thousands of veterans. (59–61)
Despite the science, the vets, and the tragedies in Iraq, the US has stubbornly refused to end its use of DU. US-UK forces may have expended more than 2000 additional tons of DU in Iraq since March 2003.
Nowadays, however, commanders are supposed to warn DI's to avoid contact with the results of their work. (62)
After the 2001-2002 bombing of Afghanistan, the Uranium Medical Research Centre(UMRC) found that the urine of Afghanis living near US-bombing sites contained 4 to 20 times the normal level of non-depleted uranium(NDU). These unexpected results could not “be explained by…any known geological or other features in the area.
”UMRC researchers were “shocked” that, “without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill…[with] symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium.” (63)
Their field results indicated that our weapons scientists had “progressed” beyond DU to NDU, a processed form of pure uranium that is even more toxic than the depleted form. The “slightly enriched” uranium reported from recent Israeli bombsites in Lebanon may possibly be NDU from modifed GBU 28 ‘bunker busters’ supplied by the United
States. (64) (65)
Dual-purpose munitions
Considering the scope of their destructive power, DU and NDU may be said to function as Dual-Purpose Munitions, like cluster bomblets that kill both tanks and people. As their exotic metallurgy “burns” through concrete and steel, DU and NDU bombs are converted to micron-sized particles that sicken and kill and murder the next generation in the womb. (66) (67)
Agent Orange, an herbicide heavily used during the war on Vietnam, also performed two functions. It obliterated the ‘jungle cover hiding the Viet Cong’ while it ‘weakened the enemy’ with burns, illness, and death, and corrupted the DNA of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.The third generation of its disfgured and suffering victims is now being born. (68) (69)
Tis madness seems to have begun during World War II, within the Manhattan Project that built the frst atomic bomb. In a 1943 memo to Brigadier General L. R. Groves, three researchers proposed steps todevelop:
“a gas warfare instrument” [of radioactive material, such as uranium] “ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke….in this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small.
It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person’s body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.” (70)
Te good doctors were concerned the Germans might be preparing such a weapon. Tey urged the Army to be ready to respond, or act, inkind. General Groves promptly followed their recommendations.
The toxic HMTA “micro-shrapnel” spewed by DIME weapons appears to be the latest development in a long string of carcinogenic and geno-toxic weapons developed and deployed by the US military.
Return to Gaza: The mythology of murder
Israel has denied using DIME weapons. Nonetheless, Israel’s military has used the occupied Palestinian territories as a weapons development zone for decades, testing bright ideas like depleted uranium and poisongases. It would not surprise us to find that it is now testing a weapon for the US Air Force on Palestinians in Gaza. (71)
Unfortunately, the DIME hypothesis is the most plausible explanation for the grotesque effects of Israel’s new weapon. We can only pray that we have not witnessed the first experiment in the effects of embedded HMTA in human subjects.
Still, DIME may not explain all of the evidence. For example, one of the metals found in victims’ wounds was copper.DIME bombs are not known to contain signifcant copper, but another US marvel, the Sensor Fuzed Weapon(SFW), sprays slugs of molten copper at its targets. Is Israel also testing the SFW? (72) (73)
If DIME weapons are designed to reduce civilian casualties, why hasIsrael’s ‘mystery weapon’ increased the civilian death toll? Perhaps this question should be addressed to the advocates of Focused Lethality Munitions, and to the remote-control operators of Israel’s drone aircraft and their commanders and politicians.
Although much remains unclear about Israel’s new weapon, a few devastating facts are indisputable:
--The weapon causes enormous and indiscriminate pain and suffering.
--It operates as both a chemical weapon and an anti-personnel explo-sive. At the very least, it is likely to induce heavy metal poisoning in its surviving victims.
--Te weapon has signifcantly increased civilian mortality rates, in part because it inflicts virtually untreatable wounds.
Despite this public parade of horrors, Israeli forces have continued to use this weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for nearly five months.
“Whenever and wherever necessary”
If the DIME hypothesis is confrmed, authorities will probably explain that it is a new class of weapon not regulated by international law. The truth is that existing conventions and treaties have already prohibited some of the most egregious effects of the new weapon.
To cite one example, the bomb may be in direct violation of ProtocolI of the ‘Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons’, which“prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays.” (74)
We will likely be told that DIME weapons provide a more “humane” way to fght “terrorism” by “reducing collateral damage” and “helping US troops win hearts and minds”. At the same time, we’ll be assured that the new weapon “packs quite a punch” and will “give our troops moreoptions” to “take the battle to the enemy”, even if he is “hiding among civilians”.
Whether Israel’s new weapon is the Air Force’s DIME bomb or another similarly dreadful invention, the horrors unfolding in Gaza make it clear that “Focused Lethality” is a blood-drenched lie. It promises only a deadlier form of indiscriminate warfare.
US plans to explode payloads of cancer-causing genotoxic heavy metal powder “wherever and whenever necessary” may portend an escalation of a campaign currently limited to the vicinity of “hard targets” we attack with DU and NDU.
Whatever we make of the intent behind these weapons, the habitual result is chemical-genetic warfare. It cannot be allowed to continue.
Maria 5 dec 2006
Hassan Mohammad Shihadeh, 40
Lebanese Man killed by cluster bomb in southern Lebanon
Lebanese security sources reported on Tuesday that a Lebanese construction worker, was killed and his relative was injured when an Israeli cluster bomb exploded as they were working at a construction site in Kafir Tibneet, near Al Nabatiyya city.
The officials were speaking on condition of anonymity since they were not allowed to talk to the press.
The man Hassan Mohammad Shihadeh, 40, was killed; his nephew Ahmad Shihadeh, 21, was injured and was rushed by medics to a local hospital.
So far, it is not clear weather the two stepped on the bomb or what caused it to explode.
During the July-August war between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party, Israel dropped 4 million cluster bombs on Lebanon.
According to United Nations ordnance clearing experts, 1 million cluster bombs continue to threaten the Lebanese civilians since they failed to explode after launch.
Lebanese sources reported that at least 25 residents were killed by cluster bombs since the war ended on August 14.
http://www.imemc.org/article/23075