"Criminally Insane… America’s Top Diplomat Calls Depleted Uranium Munitions to Ukraine a ‘Housewarming Gift’" by Strategic Culture Foundation

 

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Source: Strategic Culture Foundation

Criminally Insane… America’s Top Diplomat Calls Depleted Uranium Munitions to Ukraine a ‘Housewarming Gift’

September 8, 2023

Antony Blinken is criminally insane, just like many other Western politicians who are playing with fire over dead Ukrainian and Russian bodies.

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By his own words, one can diagnose Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, as criminally insane. This week, America’s top diplomat was in Kiev for a two-day visit where he announced a new $ 1 billion aid package to the Ukrainian regime, including for the first time the American supply of depleted uranium shells.

This was Blinken’s fourth trip to Kiev since Washington’s proxy war against Russia escalated in February last year. The latest U.S. military aid package to the Neo-Nazi regime is the 46th such arms installment delivered by the Biden administration – courtesy of American taxpayers. A total of $43 billion has been disbursed over a period of 18 months.

Blinken sought to charm his Nazi hosts by calling the latest inventory a “housewarming gift”. He said it was a sign of commitment from the United States to support the Ukrainian regime for as long as it takes.

Polls show that a clear majority of U.S. citizens are opposed to the continued military aiding of Ukraine. So much for democracy!

Included in the latest aid package is the supply of depleted uranium shells. It is beyond grotesque that a high-ranking American official can find words of endearment for such munitions and the dangers being stoked with Russia.

Nauseating too was Blinken’s visit to cemeteries for Ukrainian troops killed during the conflict and his deluded nonsense that the Kiev regime was “making progress” in its counteroffensive against Russian forces. The three-month counteroffensive has been an unmitigated disaster for the NATO-backed Ukrainians. In the last three months, it is estimated that 66,000 Armed Forces of Ukraine have been killed – adding to a total military death toll on the Ukrainian side of 400,000 since Russia launched its intervention in that country on February 24, 2022. Russia’s intervention was prompted by years of NATO-sponsored aggression from the Kiev regime.

Blinken’s relishing of more arms to Ukraine while touring thousands of graves speaks of the odious, callous nature of NATO governments. The elitist Western regimes are totally unaccountable to their citizens in their pursuit of a proxy war against Russia to the “last Ukrainian”. The United States and its European accomplices are in cahoots with a corrupt Nazi-infested regime (headed by a token Jewish puppet president) in order to maintain a lucrative war racket for the Western military-industrial complex that lies at the diseased heart of Western capitalist economies.

The U.S. announcement of depleted uranium (DU) artillery missiles follows the British move to supply DU shells earlier this year. The Anglo-American rogue states, as usual, are working as a criminal double act.

Moscow condemned it as another reckless escalation in a conflict that threatens to spiral out of control into an all-out world war between nuclear powers. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow considers the deployment of uranium-based munitions to be a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

The White House, Britain and Western media are claiming that DU shells are “harmless”. This is cynical and a heinous denial.

American and British forces have left a trail of global damage from their use of depleted uranium weapons during previous criminal wars in former Yugoslavia and Iraq.

Chris Busby, a former British government scientist who is a world-renowned authority on radioactive contamination, is one of many experts who have testified about the horrendous impact on public health from depleted uranium weapons.

Busby’s scientific investigations in Iraq found atrocious levels of cancer and birth defects among communities where American and British forces heavily used uranium shells. Similar pathologies and environmental contamination have been recorded in former Yugoslavia and among NATO troops that were deployed there.

American and British denials about the harm caused by radioactive contamination from DU munitions is a “crazy” lie, says Busby. The expert said it is correct to define such material as a WMD. He corroborates Russia’s definition and condemnation, whereas Western media have typically dismissed Moscow’s criticism as “Kremlin disinformation”.

Depleted uranium is the by-product of uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel and warheads. The spent uranium material used to manufacture armour-piercing shells is less radioactive than the enriched element, but it is radioactive nevertheless which has a deleterious long-term impact on humans. Uranium shells when exploded vaporize the metal which then becomes absorbed in human bodies, animals, soil and plants. Being a heavy metal element, even non-radioactive uranium is carcinogenic and highly toxic because it degrades cellular DNA and genetic reproduction. This is why populations that have been exposed to DU shells have been found to incur dramatic increases in leukemia, lymphoma, bone cancer, birth defects, infertility, infant mortality and other pathologies.

Western media – being the propaganda service they are – are dissembling about the sinister and criminal move by the United States and Britain to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine.

Absurdly, the United States is saying that it expects the Kiev regime “to act responsibly” in its use of DU munitions. This expectation is invested in a regime that already indiscriminately fires U.S.-supplied cluster bombs and HIMARS at civilian populations.

By arming the Ukrainian forces with depleted uranium, Washington and London are deliberately putting the wider European population at risk of deadly contamination. Ukraine will become a toxic land whose soil and vast wheat and other agricultural exports will also be a secondary source of wider contamination for other nations.

In an obscene way, the U.S.-led proxy war in Ukraine against Ukraine must go on at all costs. The Biden administration is a hostage of its own failed proxy war policy. To sue for peace – as any sane and moral party should do – would be an admission of defeat. With the U.S. presidential election coming up in November 2024, the Biden administration is hidebound to keep the war in Ukraine going and to pretend that the Kiev regime is “making progress” – despite the mounting evidence of the mass slaughter of foot soldiers.

Washington’s latest delivery of a “housewarming gift” is tantamount to an arsonist visiting a house with a psychotic grin on his face. Antony Blinken is criminally insane, just like many other Western politicians who are playing with fire over dead Ukrainian and Russian bodies.

"Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells" by Binoy Kampmark

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Source: Dissident Voice

Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells

A Hazardous Decision

by Binoy Kampmark / March 27th, 2023

Should they be taking them? Ukraine is desperate for any bit of warring materiel its armed forces can lay their hands on, but depleted uranium shells would surely not be a model example of use. And yet, the UK, in an act of killing with kindness, is happy to fork them out to aid the cause against the Russians, despite the scandals, the alleged illnesses, and environmental harms.

An outline of the measure was provided by Minister of state for defence Baroness Annabel Goldie’s written answer to a question posed by Lord Hylton: “Alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium. Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles.”

The response from the Kremlin was swift. “If all this happens,” warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Russia will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component.” Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also foresaw “nuclear collision”.

The statement from Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian lower house, shifted the focus from potential nuclear catastrophe to the field of medical consequences, reminding his fellow members that the use of such ammunition by the US in former Yugoslavia and Iraq had led to “radioactive contamination and a sharp rise in oncological cases.”

News networks were left trying to convey a picture to the public, much of it skimpy on the perilous consequences arising from using such munitions. The BBC’s characteristic language of understatement notes that such uranium, stripped of much of its radioactive content, “makes weapons more powerful, but it is feared those weapons could be a threat to people in areas where they are used.”

Sky News had its own benign interpretation of the dangers, suggesting that DU, in emitting alpha particles, did not “have enough energy to go through skin, so exposure to the outside of the body is not considered a serious hazard.” An admission as to the dangers had to follow. “It can be a serious health hazard, however, if it is swallowed or inhaled.”

The US Department of Veterans Affairs outlines a few points on the matter in greater detail. “When a projectile made with DU penetrates a vehicle, small particles of DU can be formed and breathed in or swallowed by service members in the struck vehicle. Small DU fragments can also scatter and become embedded in muscle and soft tissue.”

Since their use in the Gulf War (1991), the Kosovo War (1999), the Iraq War (2003) and Afghanistan, the curriculum vitae of such weapons has become increasingly blotchy. The use of such shells has been contentious to the point of being criminal, said to be carcinogenic and a cause of birth defects. A study examining a civilian population sample from Eastern Afghanistan, published in 2005, revealed that “contamination in Afghanistan with a source consistent with natural uranium has resulted in total concentrations up to 100 times higher than the normal range for various geographic and environmental areas throughout the world.”

Subsequent field research, notably in Iraq, has found instances of serious birth defects, including congenital heart disease, paralysis, missing limbs and neurological problems. While some of these outcomes can be attributable to other activities of the US military and its allies, the role of DU looms large.

The nature of such weaponry is also indiscriminate. As a law firm representing US war veterans acknowledges, those involved in campaigns, notably in Iraq, “may have been exposed to depleted uranium as a result of being in a vehicle that was hit by a projectile, being exposed to burning depleted uranium, or salvaging the wreckage of a vehicle that was hit by a depleted uranium projectile.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has also admitted that DU is a “potential health hazard if it enters the body, such as through embedded fragments, contaminated wounds, and inhalation or ingestion.” It prefers, however, to treat each claim for disability that might have been the result of DU poisoning “on a case-by-case basis.”

The claimed lack of unequivocal evidence linking such projectiles to adverse effects on the environment and humans has been a consistent theme in investigations – and a boon for militaries using them. A committee of review established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that covered, among other things, the use of these shells by NATO forces in the Kosovo campaign, proved less than satisfactory.

In recommending that no investigation be commenced regarding the bombing campaign – hardly a surprise – the members had to concede that NATO’s responses to any queries were “couched in general terms and failed to address specific incidents.” The Committee also found no consensus on whether the “use of such projectiles violate general principles of the law applicable to use of weapons in armed conflict.”

The UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights proved more forthright on the issue, claiming in a resolution that DU are weapons with indiscriminate effects and should therefore be prohibited under international humanitarian law. The UN General Assembly’s latest resolution on the matter, however, suggested a distinct lack of backbone, noting that “studies conducted so far by relevant international organizations have not provided a detailed enough account of the magnitude of the potential long-term effects on human beings and the environment of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium.”

Little wonder, given such a muddled frame of mind, that the use of DU projectiles has persisted with some relish, despite an avalanche of studies warning of their dangers. Nature abhors a vacuum and fills it accordingly with the mean and ghastly. In November 2015, 5000 rounds of DU ammunition were used in an air raid on oil trucks used by Islamic State forces despite assurances from the US military that it had stopped using such weapons. As to whether it will supply Kyiv with this hazardous product remains unclear – the Pentagon is proving reticent on the subject.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has attacked the UK’s decision. Its General Secretary, Kate Hudson, outlined her concerns in a statement: “CND has repeatedly called for the UK government to place an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term studies into their health and environmental impacts.”

Short of a clear treaty on the subject, preferably one with teeth, this is much wishful thinking. The Ukrainian forces, however, should give the whole matter a second thought: the effects of such weapons will not distinguish between the users, the targets, and the civilians. In the long run, it will also prove unsparing to the environment, which promises to be richly contaminated by the toxicity of such lingering munitions.

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Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne and can be reached at: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

"Russia Warns Depleted Uranium Will Be Considered a Nuclear Weapon" by Kurt Nimmo

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	Russia Warns Depleted Uranium Will Be Considered a Nuclear Weapon M242 gun mounted on Bradley Fighting Vehicles going to Ukraine fire depleted uranium rounds. KURT NIMMO JAN 26   SAVE ▷  LISTEN   Russia announced it will consider the use of depleted uranium akin to a nuclear attack. Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, said during a plenary meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation, “We know that Leopard 2 tanks, as well as Bradley and Marder armored fighting vehicles, can use depleted uranium shells, which can contaminate terrain, just like it happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq,” he said. “If Kiev were to be supplied with such munitions for the use in western heavy military hardware, we would regard it as the use of ‘dirty nuclear bombs’ against Russia, with all the consequences that entails.” The USG and NATO have stocked depleted beryllium and uranium ammunition in Europe. Bradley Fighting Vehicles, according to the CIA’s propaganda conduit, Voice of America, will soon arrive in Ukraine. The M242 gun mounted on the Bradleys uses Depleted Uranium (DU) ammunition. Additionally, the Challenger tanks the UK is sending use 120 mm sabot rounds surrounded by a jacket of DU. “DU is used throughout Afghanistan and Iraq, mostly in aircraft, tank, and Bradley Fighting Vehicle ammunition,” reports Iraq Veterans Against the War. During the Iraq invasion, the USG fired DU rounds into civilian neighborhoods. “Coordinates revealing where US jets and tanks fired nearly 10,000 DU rounds in Iraq during the war in 2003 have been obtained by the Dutch peace group Pax,” The Guardian reported in 2014. According to [the IKV Pax Christi] report, which is due to be published this week, the data shows that many of the DU rounds were fired in or near populated areas of Iraq, including As Samawah, Nasiriyah and Basrah. At least 1,500 rounds were also aimed at troops, the group says. It should be noted that an attempt to verify this information on the IKV Pax Christi website produces a page warning the site is dangerous and may have been hijacked. In other words, it was decided information about DU poisoning in Iraq and Afghanistan, including serious birth defects, is not something distracted plebs should be allowed to read. In 2013, the World Health Organization attempted to downplay DU contamination in Iraq. Remarkably, and at odds with ample evidence, the WHO reported findings on spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, and congenital birth defects in Iraq “are consistent with or even lower than international estimates. The study provides no clear evidence to suggest an unusually high rate of congenital birth defects in Iraq.” It really is amazing webpages posting this information disappear. Instead, I will link to The Guardian's post on the topic which is, obviously, too controversial for the average citizen of the West. After all, if such information revealing the psychopathy of the USG and its national security state-created “defense” department were readily available, people may oppose, in far larger numbers than now, the USG's role in Ukraine. Iraq did not have WMDs, as Bush and his neocons insisted despite a complete lack of evidence, and therefore could not respond effectively to the invasion of its country. This is far from the case with Russia. Both Gavrilov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, along with Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, have warned that the delivery of long-range missiles to the Zelenskyy regime, as Volodin is quoted as saying by Sputnik International, “will lead to a global disaster and retaliatory measures from Moscow with the use of more powerful weapons.” Gavrilov stressed Moscow will “undertake harsh retaliatory actions” if the USG persists in delivering long-range missiles and also depleted uranium, which Russia considers on par with a “dirty bomb.” It is now manifestly apparent the West is eager to attack Russian cities. It will provide top-shelf weapons to accomplish its mission of destroying Russia, killing thousands if not millions of its people, and busting the country into malleable little dictatorships dutifully following neoliberal orders. Russia will not do this. It remembers, every May 8, the “Great Patriotic War” that defeated the Nazi Wehrmacht as Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, came to a grinding halt amidst the brutal Russian winter. The German Generalplan Ost to engage in ethnic cleansing, the genocide of “untermenschen,” and the colonization of Eastern Europe (lebensraum) failed miserably. It is conservatively estimated 26 million Russians died defending their country from Nazis who wanted nothing more than to kill them. Is it possible the neocons driving this suicidal effort to “weaken” Russia are not capable of understanding that Russia, with its justifiable paranoia of invasion (before Hitler, there was Napoleon), will do everything in its power, as it did during WWII, to prevent what the neolibs and neocons have in mind? I sincerely believe hubris, narcissism, and “exceptionalism” have warped the minds of people like Victoria Nuland and the despicable Senator Lindsey Graham. Nothing, short of nuclear war and its horrific consequence, will make these people think twice about the stupidity of a short-sighted Generalplan Ost of their own. Source: Kurt Nimmo on Geopolitics