[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Check out this story on Foreign Policy

Sat Feb 18 01:32:12 UTC 2017

This part of your message to me is what is not accurate - it is all
propaganda, but extremely widespread and well believed propaganda -

"As to the article in relation to Depleted Uranium, I welcome information
refuting the claims that the US used Depleted Uranium in Syria given the
damage it does to people, children, newborns. "

Rokke was very active speaking and still does - he is all over the internet
but lies through his teeth - he and colleague Leuren K Moret referred to
the "1943 Memorandum to General Groves" (which I think that one of them or
someone that they know created) that is actually a forged document.  They
claim that it shows that US Army knew that DU was extremely hazardous back
in 1943.  Rokke further claimed in radio interview by Sunny Miller then of
Traprock Peace Center, now an artist in Indiana, that many of the soldiers
he served with in cleaning up DU after the Gulf War have died due to the
effects noted in this memo.  The memo is a forgery.  It consists of four
pages, one each from four different documents.  I have found one of the
documents by painstakingly going through microfilms at the UC Berkeley
library; then I found that those microfilms have been put on line.  That
document was written in 1944 after the supposed October 1943 document was
prepared.  It further is the basis for the secret radiological monitoring
of the D-Day invasion because the US and UK, knowing that splitting of the
atom was first scientifically discovered in Germany, expected that the
Germans might have operating atomic piles (nuclear reactors) and might have
been able to create large quantities of fission products and use those as
an unseen but deadly area denial weapon.  This document was one of the
first things I researched after I began my research into DU.  It still is
in the Wikipedia - the Talk Page contains my extensive comments.

this is the page I found (see my comments in Talk section) - the file was
probably released by the DOE in the 90's - I can not verify that because
those files are not on the internet and I can not go to the archive in
Maryland to research the physical files

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_talk:Groves_memo_30oct43_p2.GIF

Now you believe this

*given the damage it does to people, children, newborns*.  - why do you
believe this?  I know of no legitimate research that confirms this - I know
of substantial research that refutes it - these claims were the centerpiece
of Saddam Hussein's propaganda, but as you have shown they still abound.
Every anti-war person in the world probably believes it as Gospel.

Roger

When you have a gun that fires 6000 rounds per minute, you are talking of
at most perhaps three aircraft (probably more like two) that were
mistakenly loaded with "Combat Mix" with DU penetrator rounds, which are
most most likely just below or at ground level in reasonably intact
condition since none of them hit a tank or heavily armored vehicle.  These
present no threat to the environment or people at all.  Uranium simply is
not that radioactive.  U-238, aka DU is the weakest naturally occurring
radioactive elemental isotope.

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 6:51 AM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by the name of Rokke, nor do I have any
> knowledge of statements made against you.
>
> As to the article in relation to Depleted Uranium, I welcome information
> refuting the claims that the US used Depleted Uranium in Syria given the
> damage it does to people, children, newborns.
>
> As to people being angry around the world over the use of DU, well maybe
> it’s about time, people especially here in the US are angry in respect to
> our use of bombs, guns, and terrorism killing people in the Middle East and
> North Africa in order to control their resources, even if we aren’t using
> DU.
>
> On Feb 17, 2017, at 05:08, Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The story is not well written.  It was written by an activist with
> AirWar.org <http://airwar.org> and I have complained to Foreign Policy.
> There are assertions within the story that are not accurate.  The basic
> premise, that USAF fired 30mm kinetic energy penetrator rounds in Syria to
> destroy ISIS tank trucks is most likely accurate.  That was most likely a
> mistake because if you are firing at something, you want 100% of the rounds
> that you put on target to be effective and mixing four DU rounds that do
> nothing more than punch small holes in fuel tankers with one HEI (high
> explosive incendiary) round that blows a much larger hole in the tanker
> with its explosive charge and ignites the oil with the incendiary charge
> means that 80% of what you hit the target with is not effective. I have
> asked CENTCOM if they are investigating, but don't know if they will deign
> to give me a reply.  I suspect that they had no purely incendiary round
> drums available to load to the A10s flying these two missions.  To me, that
> seems very odd since DU rounds have not been effective against any target
> that A10s have flown against since the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 so
> all Combat Mix belts should have been withdrawn from ready ammunition
> inventory.
>
> DU was maligned by Saddam Hussein's propagandists which controlled all
> news out of Iraq prior to the fall of Hussein's regime in 2003.  The basic
> lies that they propagated have been bought into by anti-war activists
> around the world.  There is no actual medical evidence to support any of
> the many claims about cancers or birth defects.  On the contrary, intensive
> monitoring of over a thousand veterans who actually were hit by DU in
> friendly fire incidents has found no such medical effects.  Uranium is a
> heavy metal.  As a result, just like other heavy metals such as lead, it is
> toxic.  None of the claims made about DU actually discuss the true toxic
> effects of an overdose of uranium.  A person once tried to kill himself by
> taking such an overdose, but he was treated for uranium poisoning and
> survived with still functioning kidneys, the first organ to fail due to
> uranium poisoning.  Uranium is radioactive, but it is so weakly radioactive
> that it has a half-life of 4.5 Billion years, the age of the Earth
> calculated by using Uranium - Lead decay dating.
>
> This article is achieving its intended effect - arousing people around the
> world to anger, people who have no idea of what they are talking about.
>
> Roger Helbig
>
> independent researcher into DU, the lies about it and the liars who tell
> them since your local friend Douglas Lind Rokke in Urbana personally lied
> about me in 2004
>
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>> >
>> > The United States Used Depleted Uranium in Syria -
>> http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/14/the-united-states-used-d
>> epleted-uranium-in-syria/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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