[Peace-discuss] Depleted Uranium

[John Fettig]

Well, it's confirmed:  we used two 4,500-pound GBU-37 "bunker-buster"
bombs someplace in Baghdad.  I'm trying to figure out whether or not
this means that we just dumped 1000 tons of DU on this city.  Does
anybody have any conclusive evidence that these warheads contained DU?

I've found this link:
http://www.cursor.org/stories/uranium.htm

But they don't give any evidence that there is DU in the GBU-37.

Along with this link:

http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/u23.htm#USpatreport

Which shows that we acquired patents for DU bunker-busters, but doesn't
specifically mention the GBU-37 as a DU warhead.

The pictures of these bombs going off in the middle of a major
metropolitan area is horrifying...at first I thought they had dropped
the MOAB, that's how huge the explosion looked.

http://salty.ncsa.uiuc.edu/gallery/war/capt_1048800483_iraq_war_baghdad_nyet185

I just pray that they didn't just dump 1000 tons of DU on Baghdad.  For
all the fear that we have about "dirty bombs", we should be very very
weary (understatement of the year?) about vaporizing our nuclear waste
over a city of 5 million...

-- 
John Fettig <jfettig at uiuc.edu>