[E-rundbrief] Info 492 - US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza?

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Sa Dez 23 17:50:18 CET 2006


E-Rundbrief - Info 491 - James Brooks: US and Israel targeting DNA in 
Gaza? The DIME bomb, yet another genotoxic weapon. (See also Info 
490, 477, 468, 467, 465, 451, 449, 441, 435, 433 and others)

Bad Ischl, 23.12.2006

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza? Part 3 of 3: The DIME bomb, yet 
another genotoxic weapon

By James Brooks

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Dec 7, 2006, 00:22

The human genome: target or innocent bystander?

Since early July, Israeli forces have been using a new weapon in the 
Gaza Strip that inflicts strange and deadly wounds. Doctors and 
medics say the unidentified device has significantly increased 
fatalities from Israel's attacks. [1] [2]  [And it would appear that 
DIME was one of the new weapons also used by Israeli forces in 
Lebanon this summer.  It and other new and more deadly weapons have 
been used by the US as well in its recent incursions. - Elana]

In the first 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, 
rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic). [3-9] [Except for 
all that, it's a perfectly innocuous weapon of course. - Elana]

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. [10]

The former director of the US Army's Depleted Uranium project, Dr. 
Douglas Rokke, warns us that DU is an "illegal . . . radioactive 
toxic material," the use of which "is absolutely unacceptable, and a 
crime against humanity." [11]

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 defects, in clusters closely correlated 
with US bomb sites. Scientists found strong links between DU and Gulf 
War Syndrome, which is slowly killing thousands of veterans. [12-14]

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 2,000 additional tons of DU in Iraq since March 
2003. Nowadays, however, commanders are supposed to warn GIs to avoid 
contact with the results of their work. [15]

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 four 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 
bomb site investigated, people are ill . . . [with] symptoms 
consistent with internal contamination by uranium." [13]

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 modified GBU 28 'bunker busters' supplied by the 
United States. [16] [17]

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. [18] [19]

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 disfigured and suffering victims is now 
being born. [20] [21]

This madness seems to have begun during World War II, within the 
Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb. In a 1943 memo to 
Brigadier General L. R. Groves, three researchers proposed steps to 
develop "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." [22]

The good doctors were concerned the Germans might be preparing such a 
weapon. They urged the Army to be ready to respond, or act, in kind. 
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 genotoxic 
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 poison gases. It would not surprise us to find that it is 
now testing a weapon for the US Air Force on Palestinians in Gaza. [23]

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 significant copper, but another US marvel, the 
Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), sprays slugs of molten copper at its 
targets. Is Israel also testing the SFW? [24] [25]

If DIME weapons are designed to reduce civilian casualties, why has 
Israel'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 
explosive. At the very least, it is likely to induce heavy metal 
poisoning in its surviving victims.

The weapon has significantly 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 confirmed, 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 Protocol 
I 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." [26]

We will likely be told that DIME weapons provide a more "humane" way 
to fight "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 more 
options" 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 result is chemical-genetic warfare. It cannot be allowed 
to continue.

References

1) Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli 
attacks, Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, 10/18/2006

2) Israel used chemical weapons in Lebanon and Gaza, Jean Shaoul, 
Centre for Research on Globalization/wsws.org, 10/24/2006

3) 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

4) Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the 
tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metaltungsten alloy particles: 
induction of genotoxic effects, Miller, AC et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 
22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press

5) Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten 
Alloys, Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed 
Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI)

6) 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

7) 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

8) Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted 
uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human 
liver carcinoma cells (HepG2), Miller, AC et al, 
SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004

9) Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals 
like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring, Alexandra C. 
Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: 
Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, 
Volume 47, 2006

10) Cancer Worries for New U.S. Bombs, DefenseTech.org, 5/20/2006

11) Depleted Uranium and US-Israeli Bombs, Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, Media 
Lens, 7/24/2006

12) Dirty Weapons - Casualties From Iraq War Will Mount, Chalmers 
Johnson, Pacific News Service, 5/3/2003

13) Uranium Radiation Levels in Afghanistan Not Attributable to 
Depleted Uranium, Centre for Research on Globalization - Middle East, 6/5/2003

14) Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq: An Overview, 
Prof Souad N. Al-Azzawi, Centre for Research on Globalization - 
Middle East, 8/31/2006

15) Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Lingers as Health Concern, Larry 
Johnson, Common Dreams, 8/4/2003

16) Further Evidence Of Enriched Uranium In The Air In Lebanon 
Following The Recent Conflict, Stop Uranium Wars/Pandora DU research 
Project, 11/22/2006

17) Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb, Robert Fisk, The 
Independent, 10/28/2006

18) The Real Dirty Bombs: Depleted Uranium, Christopher Bollyn, 
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 8/6/2004

19) Depleted Uranium, Australian Peace Committee, 12/2/2006

20) Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign

21) Agent Orange DNA injury confirmed in Vietnam veterans, Patrick 
Gower, New Zealand Herald, 7/29/2006

22) Memorandum to: Brigadier General L. R. Groves From: Drs. Conant, 
Compton, and Urey, Midfully.org/War Department, United States 
Engineer Office, Manhattan District, Oak Ridge Tennessee, 10/30/1943

23) The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks, James Brooks, Vermonters for a 
Just Peace in Palestine/Israel

24) CBU-97, Wikipedia

25) Textron Systems' Sensor Fuzed Weapon Production to Include 
Maritime Capability, Textron Systems Corporation, 8/10/2006

26) Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain 
Conventional Weapons . . . , United Nations: International Law, 10/10/1980

James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in 
Palestine/Israel. He can be contacted at jamiedb @ wildblue.net.

Copyright © 1998-2006 Online Journal


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