I

I. Fox (FX) TV aired "Meltdown", a made-for-TV-movie on Sunday, June 6 and again Thursday, June 10, which confirms Cutting Edge teaching that our soldiers are being poisoned to death with Depleted Uranium (D.U.). This represents the first time that a major Mass Media outlet has publicly broken the story that Depleted Uranium is killing our soldiers. Prior to this TV movie, the only major news outlet to break the story of D.U. was The New York Daily News, when they tested nine soldiers returning from Iraq and discovered that four were already testing positive for D.U. contamination (NEWS1907).

Now, let us quickly review the story line of this movie.

Seven black-clad terrorists parachuted onto the San Juan Nuclear Power Station in central California. Easily do they capture the site from the woeful security force "protecting" the plant. Even though alarms are sounded before the terrorists can seize the plant, they easily turn back police units attempting to enter through the front gate, while other terrorists successfully seize all the plant, including the inner control room.

At first, the FBI agent on hand, Tom Shea, believes the terrorists are Muslim, since they speak Arabic, leave behind Muslim materials, and reference Allah in their public communications. However, Shea (who also fluently speaks Arabic) begins to pick up clues indicating that all factors do not correctly add up. Even the Arabic dialect spoken by the terrorists does not quite seem right.

Old-fashioned detective work on the ground locates the mistress to the head terrorist who reveals that his real name is Eddie Sands, a former Special Forces soldier in Afghanistan. This mistress informs Shea that Eddie is dying of a "syndrome" as he calls it, caused by uranium poisoning from American bombs! This "Eddie Sands" turns out to be Major Edward Sands, a much-decorated Delta Force commando. He and his entire seven-man team are dying from Depleted Uranium contamination which they caught because they fired D.U. munitions and spent much time in the contaminated battlefield known as Afghanistan.

The purpose of this commando take-over of the San Juan nuclear power plant was NOT to cause massive casualties, but simply to force public recognition of the dangers of Depleted Uranium munitions -- the raw material for which was taken from power plants like San Juan. These men are portrayed as patriots who are simply furious over the actions of military and government leaders in poisoning our soldiers in the first place, and then lying to them and the public in the second place.

Throughout this movie, the viewer sees how many times the government lies to the people and how callous about lying officials truly are. Even the Pakistani-born nuclear engineer who was in charge of the plant when the terrorists take over becomes angry as he sees news feed giving blatantly false scientific information to the people about the dangers of a meltdown. As the movie reaches its conclusion, eight people know the truth about Depleted Uranium and government lying who are not supposed to know. All eight of those people are killed by elite SWAT team members of the National Guard unit. One soldier and the Pakistani-born engineer are executed at point-blank range. They did not need to die -- but they knew too much.

Their deaths enabled the government to announce at the end of the siege that the terrorists had been identified as Muslim extremist fundamentalists who were part of a splinter group in The Philippines. This cover story held because the only eight people who could expose the false story were dead. All members of the government team who knew the truth were trusted insiders; they lived.

We have always said that THE most important story of the Afghanistan - Iraq war was that we were poisoning our own soldiers with our own munitions, and that we were poisoning the entire land and the people dwelling on that land. While this movie did not mention the poisoning of the Afghani people, it did clearly report that our own soldiers are being condemned to death by the very weapons they were called upon to employ. In fact, this movie depicted that 100% of the soldiers exposed came down with D.U. contamination. Listening to our expert medical and military advisers, Cutting Edge has held that this death rate is likely to be 7 to 8 out of 10.

We are gratified that a major Mass Media outlet has finally broken the story that Depleted Uranium munitions is killing our own soldiers. We hope the impetus will now build for more and more outlets to break this story, so the world can finally see that we have unleashed "silent nuclear war" against Afghanistan, Iraq, and the American patriotic soldier.

We shall be posting a major article on this movie this week.

II. A recent article from The Independent from London reported that Iraqi children are now suffering terribly from D.U. munitions. We posted an article on this subject, NEWS1927, entitled, "IRAQI CHILDREN UNDER FAR WORSE CONDITIONS THAN UNDER SADDAM! DEPLETED URANIUM SICKENING THE POPULATION!!"

This Independent news article was the first we have seen which reported that the Iraqi population at large was being poisoned by D.U. Therefore, we have now seen two major news breaks on this most important subject in a very short time. Let us review some of the most pertinent excerpts of NEWS1927. Prepare to be shocked:

"NEWS BRIEF: "Rise in birth deformities blamed on Allies' deadly weaponry", By Nigel Morris, Independent.co.uk, 13 May 2004

"The number of babies born deformed and children suffering leukaemia have soared because of the 'deadly legacy' of depleted uranium shells used by British and American forces in Iraq ... the country's youngsters face a worse existence today than they did under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship."

Let us repeat the important phrase, just in case you did not get it:

Caroline Lucas, a Green Party Euro-MP who recently visited Basra, said doctors there told he that the number of children born with severe deformities, such as shortened limbs or eye defects, had increased sevenfold since 1991. In addition, they were treating several new cases of leukaemia every week -- before 1991, the condition was very rare."

" 'Women in Basra are afraid to become pregnant because there are so many deformed babies,' said Lucas 'We are leaving a deadly legacy for generations to come."

Since D.U. poisoning lasts for 4.5 billion years, Coalition Forces have polluted this part of the world for as long as God allows the earth to exist. Remember the warning given me last April by our medical doctor in a foreign army, trained in modern desert warfare: Depleted Uranium poisoning is likely to be so intense that, in a generation at the most, the land will be unlivable and will have to be abandoned.

In NEWS1927, we quote an Indian Admiral as saying that this poisoning has already been detected in the food and water chain in Iraq. This insidious process of rendering Iraq unlivable has most definitely begun. A humanitarian catastrophe is gradually unfolding, in our daily news.

III. In late May, the Bush Administration launched a full-scale offensive designed to extend our current exemption for war crimes, which was granted shortly before March, 2003, when we began our invasion of Iraq. In light of the Depleted Uranium poisoning issue, discussed above, should we be surprised that our leaders now are anxious to avoid global prosecution?

NEWS BRIEF: "US wants another UN exemption from war crimes law", By Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service, 24 May 2004, http://www.cyberdyaryo.com/features/f2004%5f0524%5f01.htm

"UNITED NATIONS—The United States is pushing for a new UN Security Council resolution aimed at exempting its troops from prosecution for war crimes when they serve in any UN peacekeeping operations. If granted, the request would renew an exception first permitted in 2000 and grudgingly repeated by the world body in 2003. It comes as the international community is outraged at abuse, including torture, committed by US soldiers and other personnel against prisoners in a jail in occupied Iraq ... An Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS he is confident the United States will exert enough pressure on Council members to get the resolution adopted ... The atrocities committed by US soldiers warrant war crimes prosecutions, according to some constitutional lawyers, but the United States cannot be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it has refused to accede to the Rome Statute that created the ICC ... the United States has concluded a series of bilateral treaties, including with nations that are party to the ICC, obliging states not to hand over US personnel to the world court."

Obviously, the Bush Administration is concerned that our soldiers and the men commanding them might be hauled before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The next story gives us some more information as to the progress of our demand for exemption from war crimes.

NEWS BRIEF: "UN Delays Vote Exempting U.S. From War Crimes Court", Wired News, May 21, 2004

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A scheduled U.N. Security Council vote that would exempt U.S. peacekeepers from prosecution by a global criminal court was delayed from Friday until Monday at the request of China, U.S. officials said. But the Security Council will still conduct a public debate on Friday on the resolution, requested by nations who support the new International Criminal Court, the world's first war crimes tribunal ... The new court, the first permanent global war crimes tribunal, was set up to try perpetrators for the world's worst atrocities -- genocide, mass war crimes and systematic human rights abuses."

What worse atrocity can a nation deliver upon another than genocide which might reach 100% over the next generation? Truly, the spirit of Antichrist is loose in this world; can you hear the approaching footsteps of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Cutting Edge Ministries has been saying for over a year that THE most important story of this entire Iraq war is that Coalition Forces have been raining down Depleted Uranium munitions upon military and civilian targets in Iraq since March 13, 2003, when President Bush began his invasion. These military forces have expended over 4 million pounds of D.U. munitions, according to Admiral Vishnu Bhagwatt of the Indian Navy ["Silent WMD's -- Effects of Depleted Uranium", TrapRockPeace.org]

When a D.U. munition explodes against a hard surface, it explodes with such devastation and with such great heat that the weakly-radioactive heavy metal dissolves into fine dust, settling on the ground, on vehicles, on buildings, and on people. The ferocious dust storms constantly wreaking havoc upon Iraq pick up this D.U.-contaminated dust, blowing the fine stuff hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the battlefield on which the munitions were originally expended. All a person has to do to become fatally contaminated is to breathe one tiny speck of D.U. contaminated dust, a speck as small as 0.2mm! D.U. is a recipe for a disaster of unimaginable scope, as it will most certainly kill most the population as well as most of our soldiers.

We certainly have contaminated Iraq. To understand the full situation, please read the following Cutting Edge articles, if you have not done so already.

* NEWS1843 -- AMERICAN SOLDIERS ARE ILL AND DYING OF "MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS" -- IS IT DEPLETED URANIUM POISONING?

* NEWS1907 -- PRESIDENT BUSH'S NUCLEAR WARS AGAINST AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ NOW CONFIRMED! Four of nine American soldiers recently returned from Iraq suffering "unknown illnesses" turned to New York Daily News for help. Independent lab testing revealed four of nine soldiers were contaminated with Depleted Uranium poisoning!

* NEWS1909 -- ANCIENT BABYLON CITY SITE IS SERIOUSLY CONTAMINATED WITH DEPLETED URANIUM - POLLUTION LASTS FOR 4.5 BILLION YEARS - Research shows that the city site of Ancient Babylon is so polluted with Depleted Uranium poisoning it is highly likely no one will ever be able to live there again. No technology is currently proven that can remove D.U. poisoning

* NEWS1919 -- FORMER MARINE RECENTLY RETURNED FROM IRAQ CONFIRMS FROM FIRST-HAND WITNESS WHAT CUTTING EDGE HAS BEEN TEACHING ABOUT THIS IRAQ WAR! We are committing genocide through firing on civilians and through D.U.

* Newsletter040204 -- Section II. "The Pentagon admitted this past week that they had evacuated from the Iraqi Theater a great many more injured and/or incapacitated soldiers than they ever admitted -- up to 18,000." (Take note of the scientific information posted from Admiral Vishnu Bhagwatt, February 29, 2004).

IRAQI POPULATION SICK AND DYING

In NEWS1843, posted early August, 2003, we reported that our military medical source -- a doctor trained in modern desert warfare -- warned us that the entire population of Iraq would be poisoned soon, certainly within a generation. The featured news story reported below is the first I have seen which reports that the population is getting severely ill from our Depleted Uranium contamination; a population getting ill now will start to die in large numbers in 5-10 years. This military doctor feels that the entire land will be unlivable within 20 years; supporting this conclusion, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwatt reports that uranium contamination has already been detected in Iraq's food chain!

Finally, the former Marine Drill Instructor quoted in NEWS1919 reported that the Iraqi people are beginning to understand the fatal sentence that has been passed on them from D.U. If increasing numbers of average citizens know they are going to die from uranium poisoning, the leaders of the insurgency know and the leaders of the Interim Governing Council certainly know.

NEWS BRIEF: "Rise in birth deformities blamed on Allies' deadly weaponry", By Nigel Morris, Independent.co.uk, 13 May 2004

This statement is staggering, is it not? Bush said we needed to invade Iraq to take away Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction before he could pass them to terrorists; today, we know that was a lie. Bush also said we needed to invade Iraq because Saddam was a bad guy who operated torture interrogations and rape rooms in Iraq, and we were determined to rid the country of that scourge; today, we know that, as soon as we toppled Saddam's statute in Baghdad, American interrogators began to torture and sexually degrade prisoners. Finally, Bush said that we needed to invade Iraq because he killed 300,000 of his own people; today, we realize that our Depleted Uranium has placed the entire 24,683,313 people of Iraq under a death sentence! (Estimated July 2003, CIA World Fact Book)

Now you know why President Bush was so interested in gaining an exemption for war crimes in late, 2002, before he invaded Iraq, and is equally interested in gaining another one-year extension ("US wants another UN exemption from war crimes law", InterPress News Service, 24 May, 2004). Truly, deliberately contaminating our own soldiers and the entire population of Iraq and Afghanistan is both a War Crime and a complete disregard of all Geneva Conventions of warfare, to which we are a signatory! If this story ever hits mainstream news so that a majority of people understand that American forces have committed genocide in the name of "liberation" and "freedom", President Bush would not politically survive very long. While many Americans might feel unmoved about our death sentence of 24 million Iraqi citizens, surely they would be outraged to discover we have sentenced our own soldiers to an equally painful, and slow, death.

"Depleted uranium was widely used by Allied Forces to penetrate Iraqi tank armour in the Gulf Wars of 1991 and again last year. Opponents claim the dust it releases upon impact is rapidly absorbed into the body, causing an upsurge of serious health problems inherited by Iraqi children during the past 13 years ... Caroline Lucas, a Green Party Euro-MP who recently visited Basra, said doctors there told he that the number of children born with severe deformities, such as shortened limbs or eye defects, had increased sevenfold since 1991. In addition, they were treating several new cases of leukaemia every week -- before 1991, the condition was very rare."

" 'Women in Basra are afraid to become pregnant because there are so many deformed babies,' said Lucas 'We are leaving a deadly legacy for generations to come."

Lucas is right, but she is understating the reality -- Depleted Uranium fatally afflicts the land and its people for 4.5 billion years. (NEWS1909)

Before we move further, let us examine this last revelation again, for it puts the entire human tragedy it proper perspective -- the human perspective.

In light of this statement, the people living in the contaminated areas colored red and pink take on a much more human dimension, do they not? Basra is located in the extreme south on the Kuwait border and is one of the areas colored red, where radiological levels are about 2,000 times normal. In this area, women are afraid to have babies, and the population is slowly dying.

"The amount of depleted uranium used by coalition forces in the two Gulf Wars is not known, but some estimates suggest it was 300 tons in 1991 and five times as much last year ... the number of Iraqi babies born with serious deformities has risen from 3.04 per thousand in 1991 to 22.219 per thousand in 2001. Babies born with Downs Syndrome have increased nearly fivefold and there have been a rash of cases of previously little-known eye problems ... researchers recently discovered discovered radiation levels from destroyed Iraqi tanks to be 2,500 times higher than normal and 20 times higher than normal in the surrounding area."

We have noted several sources who have reported that Baghdad and the other areas in this map, above, colored red, are about 2,000 times higher than normal; this reality can only occur because DU munitions have been exploded in the urban areas through bunker-buster bombs, A-10 munitions, AC-130 Gunships, and other types of weaponry that fires DU munitions. Dust storms also have badly contaminated areas far removed from battlefield areas.

"... children had also been maimed by cluster bombs, blamed by Human Rights Watch for 'hundreds of preventable civilian deaths' ... youngsters were also vulnerable both to coalition forces and local militia resisting Western forces ... malnutrition had worsened since the Anglo-US invasion, and unpolluted water was in short supply while standards of hospital care had fallen because of the shortage of medical supplies ... Those children who went to school ... were 'so malnourished they can't concentrate'. Ms. Baker claimed: 'Every child in Iraq had a degree of psychological trauma. I have been to Iraq under Saddam and the sanctions -- most people know how bad things were -- but what has happened this year plunged Iraq into a plight which is actually far, far worse .. If it is worse than sanctions and Saddam, then we are really talking about a humanitarian catastrophe'."

In NEWS1558, we showed how citizens need to learn how to think "outside the propaganda box" which has so cleverly been constructed inside the brain of every Western citizen born since World War II. In this article, we learned that, most often, the truth of the matter lies 180° in the opposite direction. This article demonstrates the truth of this propaganda maxim, does it not? Listen:

* PROPAGANDA -- Bush said we needed to invade Iraq to "free", to "liberate", the citizenry from an oppressive regime who murdered people and did not take care of their basic necessities. TRUTH -- "... what has happened this year plunged Iraq into a plight which is actually far, far worse .. If it is worse than sanctions and Saddam, then we are really talking about a humanitarian catastrophe'."

* PROPAGANDA -- Bush has expressed such deep concern for the citizens of Iraq, those innocents suffering the most under Saddam. TRUTH: "'Every child in Iraq had a degree of psychological trauma".

* PROPAGANDA -- Coalition Forces have been very successful in restoring food supplies, electricity and other basic sanitary facilities that better the life of the average Iraqi citizen. TRUTH: Malnutrition had worsened since the Anglo-US invasion, and unpolluted water was in short supply while standards of hospital care had fallen because of the shortage of medical supplies ... Those children who went to school ... were 'so malnourished they can't concentrate'.

* PROPAGANDA: -- Bush said we needed to invade Iraq to take away his Weapons of Mass Destruction before he could pass them to terrorists. TRUTH: Today, we know that was a lie. Just this past week, David Kay, former head of Bush's WMD investigation team in Iraq said that a person is "delusional" if they continue to believe WMD ever existed! Just as UN inspectors repeatedly said, Saddam never had any WMD. The only way in which Bush could get the "intelligence reports" he needed to say that WMD were a threat in Iraq was by deliberately creating a bogus intelligence service called "Office of Special Plans", from which the bogus reports poured forth [NEWS1890 and NEWS1890b).

* PROPAGANDA: -- Bush also said we needed to invade Iraq because Saddam was a bad guy who operated torture interrogations and rape rooms in Iraq, and we were determined to rid the country of that scourge. TRUTH: Today, we know that, as soon as we toppled Saddam's statute in Baghdad, American interrogators began to torture and sexually degrade prisoners. But, more significantly, we remember that the only reason this story broke was because either Bremer or Lt. General Sanchez "leaked" the story from Coalition Headquarters in Baghdad! The Bush Administration wanted this story leaked.

* PROPAGANDA: -- Bush said that we needed to invade Iraq because Saddam killed 300,000 of his own people. TRUTH: Today, we realize that our Depleted Uranium has placed the entire 24,683,313 people of Iraq under a death sentence! (Estimated July 2003, CIA World Fact Book)

This news story is the first I have seen which details how the Iraqi people are beginning to get sick from Depleted Uranium. Soon, these statistics of sickness shall turn into statistics of death. Remember also, in NEWS1919, a former Marine Corps Drill Instructor revealed that the people of Iraq are starting to become aware of the death sentence which has been pronounced upon them by our Depleted Uranium munitions!

This fact means that every Iraqi leader -- both insurgents and cooperative members of the Interim Government -- knows that the entire country has had a death sentence delivered upon them.

Remember how we were told that our troops would be welcomed with open arms as "liberators" from Saddam? History now records that this did not occur. But, why should we have ever expected our troops to be welcomed as liberators? American forces had unleashed D.U. upon the people of southern Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and the population has been suffering greatly ever since. When Coalition Forces swept in amongst the people, many of them were well aware of the legacy of death contained within our Radioactive Arsenal.

But, now, in this war, up to 4,000,000 pounds have been unleashed, and this time, directly upon the urban population.

As we stated in NEWS1920, our actions in Iraq are fulfilling Bible prophecy to a startling degree. America is clearly the military machine God has raised up in these Last Days to finish His mighty judgment upon Iraq. However, this insight should fill all Americans with great dread for our future!

To understand the danger we are in if God has chosen us to be His hammer of judgment against Iraq, you have to understand the Pattern of Judgment as revealed in the Old Testament. On numerous occasions, God used a more wicked nation than Israel as His physical arm of judgment; but then, in every case, once God had delivered his judgment against Israel, He then turned around to destroy the nation He had just used against Israel. Bible scholars call this His "Pattern of Judgment".

Therefore, if America is being used to deliver God's judgment upon Iraq, He will then turn around and bring us into physical judgment. Is this the reason America is not specifically mentioned in Tribulation prophecy, while our enemies are mentioned? Is this the reason the Guiding Spirits of our Masonic Forefathers emphatically told them that our true national bird is the Phoenix Bird? [NEWS1259; NEWS1399; NEWS1493; and Seminar 2: "America Determines The Flow of History"]

Let me repeat the Biblical "Pattern of Judgment" -- Once God uses a nation militarily to come against another nation in judgment, He then turns upon that nation whose military He has just used, and brings that nation into full physical judgment, which usually means physical devastation.

Are you spiritually ready? Is your family? Are you adequately protecting your loved ones? This is the reason for this ministry, to enable you to first understand the peril facing you, and then help you develop strategies to warn and protect your loved ones. Once you have been thoroughly trained, you can also use your knowledge as a means to open the door of discussion with an unsaved person. I have been able to use it many times, and have seen people come to Jesus Christ as a result. These perilous times are also a time when we can reach many souls for Jesus Christ, making an eternal difference.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, but have come to realize His reality and the approaching End of the Age, and want to accept His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can also do so now, in the privacy of your home. Once you accept Him as Savior, you are spiritually Born Again, and are as assured of Heaven as if you were already there. Then, you can rest assured that the Kingdom of Antichrist will not touch you spiritually.

"Unborn children of the region [are] being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA."

- Ross B. Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research Centre, from his report: ‘The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf Region with Special Reference to Iraq.’ May 1992

I have recently received large numbers of photographs of horrendous birth deformities that are being experienced in Iraq. I have not, quite frankly, ever seen anything like them. I urge you to copy this page / these pictures and circulate them as widely as possible.

In an act of stark cruelty, the US dominated Sanctions Committee refuses to permit Iraq to import the clean-up equipment that they desperately need to decontaminate their country of the Depleted Uranium ammunition that the US fired at them. Approximately 315 tons of DU dust was left by the use of this ammunition.The Sanctions Committee also refuses to allow the mass importation of anti-cancer treatments, which contain trace amounts of radio-isotopes, on the grounds that these constitute '...nuclear materials..'

The majority of the pictures were supplied to me by a source who prefers to remain anonymous at the current time. I was unable to acquire either original negatives, or prints from negatives. They arrived in the form of colour A4 copies. I scanned them into Photoshop and attempted to clean and sharpen them as best I could. There has not, and I repeat not, been any digital alteration other than the cleaning and sharpening process. No text documentation arrived with the pictures, so I have described them as accurately as I can. It is my understanding that the photographs were taken from 1998 onwards. I would be grateful to anyone who could potentially supply me with further information about these types of deformities; medical terms for them, etc.

Additional pictures were taken by Dr. Siegwart Horst-Gunther, President of the International Yellow Cross. Most appeared in his 1996 book "URANIUM PROJECTILES - SEVERELY MAIMED SOLDIERS, DEFORMED BABIES, DYING CHILDREN" (Published by AHRIMAN - Verlag, ISBN: 3-89484-805-7). The book is a documentary record of DU ammunition after-effects, and they were taken between 1993 and 1995. Dr. Gunther also supplied me with additional photographs from his unpublished collection, some of which feature the birth deformities being experienced by Western Gulf war veterans' children. I have asked Dr. Gunther's permission for his pictures to be treated as 'Public Domain' and copyright free. He has agreed and you may reproduce them as you see fit.

Both the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defence officially deny that there is any significant danger from exposure to DU ammunition. And whilst it is conceivable that the US led attacks on Iraq's nuclear power stations could be a contributory factor, most reseachers point to DU as the most likely source of both deformities and cancers. The rising number of cases in Iraq, particularly in the South where the greatest concentration of DU was fired, is simply staggering. Iraqi physicians have never encountered anything like it, and have made the perfectly reasonable point that similar increases in cancer and deformities were experienced in Japan after the two US atomic bomb attacks. Cancer has increased between 7 and 10 fold; deformities between 4 and 6 fold.

Yet the US was well aware of the potential effects on civilians and military personnel of the chemical toxicity and radiological properties of DU ammunition long before the Gulf war began, as the following excerpts of a US Army document categorically state:

"Aerosol DU (Depleted Uranium) exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects. [...] Under combat conditions, the most exposed individuals are probably ground troops that re-enter a battlefield following the exchange of armour-piercing munitions. [...] We are simply highlighting the potential for levels of DU exposure to military personnel during combat that would be unacceptable during peacetime operations. [...DU is..]... a low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, [and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage. [...] Short term effects of high doses can result in death, while long term effects of low doses have been linked to cancer. [...] Our conclusion regarding the health and environmental acceptability of DU penetrators assume both controlled use and the presence of excellent health physics management practices. Combat conditions will lead to the uncontrolled release of DU. [...] The conditions of the battlefield, and the long term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators for military applications."

- Excerpts from the July 1990 Science and Applications International Corporation report: ' Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environment and Health Considerations', as included in Appenix D - US Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command report: 'Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, July 1990'

The US was also well aware of the long-term dangers of DU contamination, and played it down, as the following memo and document make clear:

"There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no-one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written."

- Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum, March 1st 1991

"Soldiers may be incidentally exposed to DU from dust and smoke on the battlefield. The Army Surgeon General has determined that it is unlikely that these soldiers will receive a significant internal DU exposure. Medical follow-up is not warranted for soldiers who experience incidental exposure from dust or smoke. [...] Since DU weapons are openly available on the world arms market, DU weapons will be used in future conflicts. The number of DU patients on future battlefields probably will be significantly higher because other countries will use systems containing DU. [...] DU is a low-level radioactive waste, and, therefore, must be disposed of in a licensed repository. [...] No international law, treaty, regulation, or custom requires the United States to remediate the Persian Gulf war battlefields."

- Report by the US Army Environmental Policy Institute: 'Health and Consequences of Depleted Uranium use in the US army', June 1995

DU ammunition is now possessed by more than 12 countries, and was used during the NATO led bombing of the former Yugoslavia. Western forces stationed in the region have recently been advised not to drink the local water or eat locally produced food. Yet the British MoD continues to deny any potential risks, stating: "We have not seen any peer-reviewed epidemiological research data to support these claims [that DU is dangerous.] [...] There are no plans to remove DU-based ammunition from service." (Source: Two letters to me from Simon Wren, Overseas Secretariat, Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London - 20th May 1999, and 22nd March 2000)

On a more personal level, I have heard stories of visitors to Iraq who spoke with mid-wives there. These mid-wives are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out."