Why Has Our Military Refused to Show This Training Video To Our Troops Now Serving In Iraq?
US ARMY TRAINING VIDEO:
Depleted Uranium Hazard Awareness
Between October and December 1995, the U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium (DU) Project completed a series of training videos and manuals about depleted uranium munitions. This training regimen was developed as the result of recommendations made in the January 1993 General Accounting Office (GAO) report, "Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal with Depleted Uranium Contamination."
The training materials were intended to instruct servicemen and women about the use and hazards of depleted uranium munitions. In addition, the training regimen included instructions for soldiers who repair and recover vehicles contaminated by depleted uranium.
Throughout 1996, these videos sat on a shelf, while U.S. soldiers continued to use and work with depleted uranium munitions. In June 1997, Bernard Rostker, The Department of Defense (DoD) principle spokesperson for their investigation of Gulf War hazardous exposures, stated that the depleted uranium safety training program would begin to be shared by a limited number of servicemen and women in July 1997.
STILL TODAY the vast majority of servicemen and women in the U.S. military, and likely in the armed forces of other countries which are developing or have obtained depleted uranium munitions, are unaware of the use and dangers of depleted uranium munitions, or of the protective clothing and procedures which can minimize or prevent serious short-term exposures.
The issue of Depleted Uranium has been an issue since Gulf War I. (Click on link below.)
Introduction:
I first heard about the military using depleted uranium for bullets from the Native Americans for a Clean Environment (NACE) in Gore, Oklahoma. Kerr Magee was operating a factory there, and in a liquid waste spill a young man, about twenty-one years old, was sprayed with the mixture and died. Many members of the public were also exposed, and were taken to the University in Oklahoma City for medical examination and feces analysis. It seems that the liquid waste contained primarily uranium and other heavy metals.
Local people had found this factory to be very polluting. When I visited the town to see what was happening and to decide whether or not I could help, they showed me rust marks scattered over the surface of their automobiles where the toxic corrosive spray released from the factory routinely had impacted on the paint. People complained of burning throats and eyes, some with even more serious complaints, but little systematic information which would show that the factory was the source of their problem.
This is an article about a visit to Iraq on March 11, 2003; just before the unilateral invasion by the USA.
Winston-Salem Journal
Tue, March 11, 2003
Iraq isn't a threat, minister says after mission Nation is 'beaten down to a pulp,' pastor says; clergy flew in as guests of Christian fellowship
By John Railey
JOURNAL REPORTER
The Rev. John Mendez says he's haunted by what he saw on a peace mission to Iraq last week.
He saw the burn marks left where more than 400 people died in a Baghdad bomb shelter in the Gulf War in 1991.
He saw people weakened by the U.N. economic sanctions that have continued since the war.
"It ain't what we think," said Mendez, the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. "We have beaten that country down to a pulp. It isn't a threat to anybody."
Mendez flew to Baghdad with eight other clergy as guests of the Middle East Council of Churches, a fellowship of Christians in the predominantly Muslim Middle East. His group was made up mostly of black ministers from Washington and New York who have corresponded with friends in the Middle East. A Muslim cleric from the United States was also part of the delegation.
This is the personal webpage to Rev. Mendez trip to Iraq.
Reverend John Mendez of Emmanuel Baptist Church recently visited Iraq.
He's a nice man.
