Dangerous Radiation From Hidden Cell Phone Towers - ForumGarden

Dangerous Radiation From Hidden Cell Phone Towers - ForumGarden: "


By Ted Twietmeyer
8-7-4

Most people are unware of the Radio Frequency (RF) radiation they are exposed to. Radiation is usually associated with radium, weapons, medical treatments, nuclear power plants and smoke detectors. Before we discuss covert cell towers and other numerous radiating antennas being installed with impunity, we should review the RF spectrum. This will be helpful in understanding how the radio spectrum affects us. We will not discuss HAARP, which is in itself a unique area of the radio spectrum in the shortwave band.

There are essentially TWO types of harmful radiation (not including light such as ultraviolet):

A. GOVT. CONTROLLED RADIOACTIVE SOURCES: Power plants, smoke detectors, medical treatment sources, etc...

B. UNCONTROLLED RF EXPOSURE: Radio Frequency devices of many types. The RD spectrum is regulated by the FCC in America, and other similar regulatory agencies that exist in other countries around the world through international radio agreements. Yet most of them appear to be very unconcerned about health effects.

We will concentrate on the latter in this esay - UNCONTROLLED RF EXPOSURE. RF signals are without a doubt an invisible form of pollution. Most people see a smokestack smoking and scream "OH ! Look at that pollution !" But as we will see, this is not really the most immediate, serious health hazard. What IS known about RF, is that unhealthy effects from it are related to an almost infinte combination of each of the five following factors:

1. FREQUENCY - Certain frequencies are absorbed in the body more than others. For example, the new riot control weapons the Pentagon have operates in the Super-High Frequency (SHF) region. This frequency is about 15 times higher than a conventional microwave oven. Although SHF is not absorbed into the skin, it boils perspiration on the skin causing pain.

2. DURATION - How long you are exposed to the radiation, or how long the transmitter is "on."

3. DISTANCE - How close you are to the antenna. Energy levels decrease with the square of the distance.

4. POWER LEVEL - What the strength of the signal is. This is measured in microwatts, milliwatts and watts. One microwatt is a millionth of a watt, One milliwatt is one-thousandth of a watt. For example, 1,000 milliwatts is one watt.

Cell phone power levels are often in the 100 milliwatt to 4 watt class. In the past, older bag type cell phones people carried around, were up near 4 watts of power. Getting a strong signal was no problem. Today's pocket cell phones are in the 100 milliwatt area. Reducing the power goes with size reduction and a smaller battery. This also reduces cell size, which actually is beneficial
as I'll explain latter.

5. SUSCEPTABILITY - Like tobacco smoke, you cannot tell if you will or will not become ill from RF exposure. But RF heating of body tissues and possible DNA alteration (mutation) happens to 100% of the people exposed to RF. The amount of heating is determined by a combination of the four factors above. The immune system is responsible for cleaning up mutant DNA. But can the immune system clean it out all the defective DNA and dead cells, and do this indefinitely ? Modern medical science knows there are limits to how much of an assault on the body the immune system can deal with.

WHY RF IS SIMILAR TO RADIOACTIVITY

For those familiar with radiation exposure hazards, the striking parallels to radioactivity are obvious here. RF Frequency is similar to the radiation type, like Alpha, Beta or Gamma. In fact, each of these particles move as a frequency above that of ultraviolet light, and are actually composed of high speed particles. Each of the particle types affects the human body and systems in different ways. RF power level is like the number of particles per second of a radioactive source. Both duration and distance also translate into the realm of radiation exposure.

We know that certain radioactive particles from Alpha particle emitters cause the most damage to lung cells when inhaled. Alpha particle ionizing radiation alters DNA in cells, and can create pre-cursor changes leading to cancer. Tissues and structures in the body that appear on scans and x-rays are sometimes diagnosed as a "pre-cancerous condition" by doctors. Older camping mantle lanterns were very radioactive, because they were made from the element thorium. (The author of this paper found such a radioactive mantle in an older propane lantern. It is believed that most of these are now off the market.)

The reason for discussing the above subject, is to show that anything which alters cellular DNA can be extremely unhealthy. And this is both nuclear radiation and RF. There are also chemical and effects from ultraviolet as well.

THE RF SPECTRUM - WHAT DIFFERENT RF FREQUENCIES DO TO THE HUMAN BODY

For our European friends, please note that all the frequencies referenced below are for the American and Canadian radio spectrum. The lowest frequencies are radio waves, that are actually the same as frequencies as the audio sound which comes out of your speakers. This called VLF, or Very Low Frequency. These waves have wavelengths measured in thousands of miles. They pass through the body without damage.

Commercial AM radio signals, use waves that are also quite long and pass through the body with relative ease. These are also waves, whose wavelengths are measured in hundreds of feet. Shortwave signals are also very long, and this part of the spectrum reaches up to a part of the miltary band, located below TV channel 2.

Decades ago, people could go to a doctor for aches and pains and be treated with a Diathermy machine. This machine was essentially a shortwave radio transmitter, and operated with a curved antenna that fits the human body. When placed against the skin, the antenna radiated energy that was absorbed deep in the body's tissues. A sufficient power level of RF energy will cause currents of electricity to flow in these tissues, thereby creating warmth. These machines are probably outlawed by now and died a quiet death in America. RF energy causes molecules to collide with one another creating heat. This occurs in tisuues like muscles, as well as blood.
FM stations (located in the radio band near TV channel 6) and over the air television channels 2 through 13 are all in the VHF band. These signals can also pass through the human body without harm. These waves are measured in several feet.
When you look at any TV antenna, multiply the width of the antenna by four, and that will be the wavelength of the wave from the TV transmitter. Hence the term 1/4 wavelength, which is a design rule for most antennas.

Television channels 14 through 83 are in the UHF region. Channel 83 is actually just below analog cell phone frequencies. Progammable police scanners scan police channels that are very close to cell phone frequencies.
(Privacy laws force scanners to block the cell phone band. )

WHERE DOES MICROWAVE BEGIN ?

We are now entering the realm where RF begins to affect the human body at a distance. It is generally considered that any frequency above TV channel 83 is microwave. There is a "fuzzy" line between microwave and non-microwave radio signals. In fact, the upper channels of the UHF band in America are considered the near microwave band. Radio signals operating with short wavelengths measured in centimeters, can increase the temperature of water and tissues at a distance. Although most people equate this only with microwave ovens, this effects happens at lower frequencies. Complex proteins present in blood also break down into toxic materials. These invisible, toxic compounds can cause increasing muscle, joint and nerve pain in people over time as toxins build up in the body. Alteration of proteins and toxin generation not only happens to the body when exposed to RF, but also to food in microwave ovens. Many people have put their microwave ovens on the curb, when they discovered their pain was linked to microwaved food. The effects of microwaved food on the immune system are largely unexplored by mainstream science,
but are well known by those that suffer from them.

In reality, Diathermy treatments work on the same principle that microwave ovens operate on, except that microwave ovens use higher power levels and higher frequencies. In later years after Diathermy became popular, it was found that higher RF frequencies allowed heating at a distance, without direct electrode contact. The story about the microwave oven invention is that it was discovered by accident, by an engineer working in an electronics lab. He found the radiation from the equipment melted a candy bar in his pocket. Amana is credited with building and selling the first commonly available oven - the infamous RadarRange. The discovery reminds one of the sticky-note origin story. Another accidental discovery - found while 3M was trying to create a better adhesive..

For many years, everyone treated microwaves as nothing to be concerned about. No one learned from the lessons of Madam and Pierre Curie who tinkered with radium a century ago, and died from radiation poisoning. Remember the comparison of RF with radioactiviting above ? Several decades ago, a man walked past the front of a telephone relay dish on the roof of a building. He suffered no immediate ill effects, but died some days later in the hospital as his organs began to fail. His organs had absorbed the microwave radiation, and were permanently and fatally damaged. He was essentially cooked and didn't know it. If he has walked past a sufficient amount of Plutonium, the same thing would happen but in a different way. He would have still died.

RADIATION BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL RADIATION

Today, ALL microwave transmitting dishes and antennas must have radiation stickers on them, if people can become near them. Located on the front nose-cone of aircraft are small warning stickers if they have radar. THe radar MUST be turned off when the aircraft is on the ground, as it is hazardous to ground personnel. Warning stickers use the universal radiation warning symbol, of three triangles inside a circle. This the identical symbol used for radioactive materials. Many in the armed forces know the stories and often unpleasant fate of those that unknowingly walked in front of operating aircraft radar.

C band microwave remote uplink trucks used at sports events use power levels typically on the order of 120 watts. Fortunately all the RF energy is pointed upwards towards a satellite more than 22,000 miles away.

Now with all that said, how are WE being irradiated ? The effects of low level radiation are only now beginning to be understoodfrom the efforts of lab research around the world.

There are a number of RF frequencies the FCC has set aside, that have unlimited civilian use. Although related unlicensed transmitter operation is usually limited to short range digital devices like garage door openers and cordless phones, low level RF may have a cumulative effect that is not yet understood. For a more in-depth look at complex microwave frequency allocation assignment by the FCC see [6].

Here is a quick list of common sources of radiation:

1. CELL PHONES - Here the antenna is very close to the brain, and many studies have been done on this. Recent studies done in Europe show that tumors can be induced in rats, which are exposed to the same power levels and distances that normal cell phone users are from the phone's antenna.

2. CORDLESS PHONES - In reality, these are as detrimental as cell phones because they operate near the microwave frequencies of cell phones (microwave.) In some ways, they could be worse than cell phones because many people spend more time on these.

3. GARAGE DOOR OPENERS - A source of radiation when the button is pressed.

4. WIRELESS PDAs and NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS - These work very much like cell phones, with the same potential effects.

5. MICROWAVE ALARM SYSTEM SENSORS - This is one area NO ONE talks about. These are common in homes and businesses. Although the power level is in the microwatt realm, one may sit exposed to it all day, every day, sometimes just a few feet away. Again, think about it in terms of exposure time vs. energy levels.

6. BLUE TOOTH WIRELESS DEVICES - Operate in the lower microwave region.

7. WIRELESS VIDEO CAMERAS - Operate in the microwave region above analog cell phones.

8. TV EXTENDERS - Used to transmit video and sound without wires from one room to another in a home. These also operate
in the microwave region above analog cell phones.

9. SATELLITES - Walk outside, anywhere, and you will be bombarded with RF from satellites, both civilian and military. If you could visibly "see" these sources, you would see points of "light" from the 22,500 mile high Clarke belt of stationary satellites. This belt of satellites rise from the western horizon and arcs across the sky to the east. There will also be hundreds of moving lights in the sky from lower geosynchronous orbits. Some of these are also satellites the military uses that send signals to earth, too. Many military satellites have high-powered optical sensors, with huge telephoto lenses that watch everything from orbit. These satellites orbit about 200 miles up and contrary to public belief, can actually read a newspaper headline from orbit. The portrayal of distant fuzzy images as seen in "Patriot Games" is far from the truth. And these satellites bombard the earth with more RF radiation as they send their data to earth.

10. POLICE RADIOS - Police officers now have antennas on their microphones, also have a similar risk to that of cell phone users since the antenna is located near the head. There is also radiation from the antennas on their vehicles, too.

11. WALKIE-TALKIE TYPE RADIOS - In decades past, business radios operated in the lower VHF band.
These were known as business band radios, and are still in use today. No known ill effects are known to have originated from these radios. Today's family channel radios operate in the 400Mhz UHF band, near TV channel 14.

12. DOOR OPENERS - Often used in grocery and discount stores, these open the door when you pass under a microwave motion detector. You pass directly under the unit when you enter or exit the store, receiving more microwave radiation.

13. SECURITY FOR STORES - Used in WalMart, video rental and other stores, these exit portals generate an RF field you are forced to walk through upon entering and exiting the store.The square "Be Kind Please Rewind" tag is often a tuned printed circuit behind the label, that will trigger the security system when passed through a portal at the exit. Libraries use a very similar system with thin resonanting devices slipped into the spine of books. These systems operate in the lower microwave band, allowing the use of small coils (or no coils at all) because of the high frequencies employed.

14. CELL TOWERS - Last but not least, cell tower antennas which operate at power levels of about 10 watts FOR EACH ANTENNA on the tower. Some use higher wattage than that. These directional antennas divide a geographical area into cells of service.

There are many more toys, products and devices too numerous to mention here. We are immersed in a virtual SEA of RF energy, with cell towers as one of the strongest continuous sources of RF energy.

MORE ABOUT CELL PHONES

When you turn your cell phone on, the cell phone company carrier you have uses a computer network connected to all the cell towers, to invisibly command your phone to change to an available frequency. This is why numerous people can talk in a given cell phone area and not hear one another. When a cell phone is on, it transmits frequently to notify the phone company it is actually on. As you walk or drive, the cell system determines signal strength and switches you connection to another tower near you. Even when you are not talking, the phone can still radiate energy. If you have it in your shirt or pants pocket or on your belt, body tissues around the antenna on the phone are being irradiated with RF energy. This is an inescapable fact.

Since this is a multi-billion dollar industry, it's very unlikely the public will be told about the health hazards of cell phones. This is about as likely as the public being properly informed about microwave oven risks. As you read on, you'll see the similarities between the two microwave based technologies.

COVERT ANTENNAS

The closer to a radiating antenna you are, the higher the health risk there is. In an effort to increase channel availability for the increasing number of cell phone users, cells have to be made smaller. These are often known as microcells. In the past, cell towers typically covered a 10 mile cell. Microcells today are often less than one mile, depending on local population size. More towers are required to be assured a cell phone will get a channel when talk is pressed, or when someone answers a cell phone.

In 2002, industry officials stated that there were more than 128,000 cell towers across America. About 25% of these were hidden towers, and the remaining number of them were traditional types. [1] Keep in mind that cell tower density is directly connected to population density. There are still parts of North America where no cell towers exist, because population density makes them economically unfeasable.

There is a map showing cell tower proliferation. Althought the paper is four years old, it details graphically the density and distribution of cell towers across America at that time, which has greatly increased. [2]

Antennas come in many forms, including trees, cactus, gas station signs and even replacement church steeples Below are some photos of hidden cell towers manufactured by the Larson Company:


JOLLY OLD ENGLAND IS IRRADIATED AS WELL

In England, angry mobs of people have torn down these gas station signs (like the one shown above) they learned to have cell antennas inside. When they asked workmen installing an antenna, "what are you doing ?" the answer was "you don't want to know." There are news stories in the past, of people that loosen bolts at night and bring down such towers. In America, antenna arrays are very often hidden in plain, white tapered church steeples in suburban areas. A custom built, modernized fiberglass copy of the original wooden church steeple is lowered into place with a crane, complete with antennas already inside. Cell equipment is also hidden from public view. But the radiation is still there.

Micro-cell anternnas are designed to serve a small cell area. These antennas are not 100 feet or more high like common cell towers in America, but often just 10 to 20 feet above the ground. However, these antennas also radiate microwave RF energy closer to people, too. Someone could stand or work beside such an antenna and not realize the effect it may have on them. Many are hidden in church steeple replacements, including Big-Ben-like structures, complete with working clocks on each of the four faces.

Workmen installing a near ground level antenna inside a sign (like the Shell station sign shown above) have people ask "what are you doing ?" The answer they heard was "you don't want to know." There are numerous UK news stories of people that loosen bolts and bring down such towers. In America, antenna arrays are very often hidden plain, white tapered churc steeples in suburban areas. Just out of reach for the public. [3]


CELL PHONE RADIATION STUDIES

In general, all of us MUST keep in mind that the human body is an electrical system. It will be, and is affected by, outside RF energy fields that can promote unwanted nerve stimulation, cancer, heating effects, and many other unwanted effects.

A comparison table for telephone effective radiation head exposure has been developed to provide reference values. [4] This value varies considerably for dozens of different cell phone models tested. DNA breakdown is among the most disturbing findings of studies done, which can lead to illness and tumors. There are now new links to brain cancer being uncovered as you read this. There is new concern over those that wear cell phones on their belts, because of the close proximity of the antenna to kidneys. The liver which can rebuild itself to some degree after being damaged, but your kidneys cannot.

One notices that RF exposure studies in the media from Europe are much more common and considerably more vocal than those done in America. Publishing negative study results in North America will have a negative effect on the billion dollar market, and subsequently affect stock in cell phone companies. Cell companies have managed to keep the lid nailed shut on the box, in so far as mainstream media are concerned, but this can only last for so long. I personally was not convinced of the damage potential of low level RF radiation for more than 20 years. That is, until reading a number of test results, all saying very much the same thing
about observed detrimental effects on living organisms.

At least one such study [5] on health effects was done in Australia. Note the usual scientific cautiousness expressed here, even though other studies have linked RF exposure to tumor growth. Its interesting to note the scientist's other comments, that thermal temperature can increase the negative effects of RF exposure:

EXTRACT START:
"Researchers in Australia have reported one of the first scientific hypotheses that normal mobile phone use can lead to cancer. The research group, lead by radiation expert Dr Peter French, principal scientific officer at the Centre for Immunology Research at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, said that mobile phone frequencies well below current safety levels could stress cells in a way that has been shown to increased susceptibility to cancer.

The paper, published in the June issue of the science journal Differentiation, says that repeated exposure to mobile phone radiation acts as a repetitive stress, leading to continuous manufacture of heat shock proteins within cells.

Heat shock proteins are always present in cells at a low level, but are manufactured in larger amounts when the cell is stressed by heat or other environmental factors. They repair other proteins that are adversely affected by the conditions, and are part of the cell's normal reaction to stress. However, if they are produced too often or for too long, they are known to initiate cancer and increase resistance to anti-cancer drugs.

No link shown - Dr. French emphasised that no link has yet seen shown between the specific biological effects of mobile phone radiation and cancer, but that there was now a theoretical framework for such an effect that could be investigated. His previous work has included showing that the production of histamine, a chemical involved in asthma, can be nearly doubled after exposure to cellular frequencies.

To date, most safety levels have been set on the assumption that damage is caused by heating effects of radio waves in human tissue, much higher than the levels at which Dr French claims heat shock proteins are triggered.

His co-authors include Professor Ron Penny, the director of the Centre and one of Australia's leading experts in the cellular effects of HIV, and Professor David McKenzie, head of applied physics at Sydney University."
EXTRACT END


SO WHAT IS THE TRUTH ?
And even though numerous studies exist that prove the negative effects of low level RF fields on the human body, still there also those that claim no negative effects exist. So which is true ? The more realistic studies are those that actually simulate human conditions, where rats in a cage were exposed to the same frequencies, power level and distance from the antenna as people are. Changes to their brain structure were observed after necropsies (animal autopsies) were performed.

This is the type of science that ALL researchers should concentrate on - duplicating human cell phone conditions. People often mistakenly still think that since they are not talking on the phone, it isn't transmitting. To prove this, all one needs to do is to call a phone from another phone, and then call it when its off. Cell systems ping the phone whenever someone calls it even if they don't answer, as well as perdiodically pinging it (covert tracking) even when no one is using it. Pinging commands the phone's transmitter circuits power up and respond, which subsequently generates microwave radiation. The user has no control over these operations if the phone is in standby. Many newer phones today cannot be turned off, unless the battery pack is removed. This does not disable the satellite tracking chip however.

CONCLUSIONS AND COMMENTARY
We are being relentlessly bombarded both indoors and outdoors by many different forms of radiation. As more and more cell phones proliferate like reproducing rabbits out of control, radio bandwidth and channel limitations force companies to add more microcells. Many towers in cities will become obsolete, as these will serve too large of an area. The towers will be most likely converted to other mind control and tracking tasks we won't discuss here. Microcells are worse for humans as these directly result in more RF radiation, as a result of being located closer to people at ground level. There are no other options to keep the cell network operating, because of the limited nature of cell phone technology. Unfortunately the average person won't care, as long as their phone works when they pick it up. Increased RF exposure will inevitably lead to more illness from compromised immune systems, nervous system, brain disorders, organ problems, tumors and cancer.

This problem is very much like cancer. An interesting fact about cancer is that everyone has a different susceptability to it. Some people can smoke their entire lives and not become ill, yet live to be 99 years old. Others cannot. Some can drink hard alcohol their entire lives and never have health problems, while others cannot. Cell phone radiation susceptability will likely inevitably prove to be this way. The studies show that RF radiation exposure can be just as harmful as smoking. People using cell phones and wearing them daily like jewelry should keep that in mind. Pagers are harmless, because they do not emit radiation (unless it is a two-way pager.)

The problem is you don't know how susceptable your body is until its too late. Do you want to wait to find out the hard way ? Is your life and health insurance current ?

All the time we see cell phone foolishness. People often chuckle, sneer and shake their heads at those hooked on cigarettes standing outside stores, puffing away and working hard to accomplish heart attacks, strokes and cancer. These same laughing people then go into a store and place a call on their cell phone, to irradiate themselves.

You hear can easily overhear highly intellectual conversations like this one in a store, while watching people PAYING to irradiate themselves. (Doesn't this remind you of smoking ? Paying to become deathly ill ?)

Here's one conversation I heard:

"I'm entering the store now......
I'm going down the aisle to where they keep 'em.....
Yup, I can see it now.....
Yes, they have one....
Going to the checkout now to stand in line.....
.......... see you later. Bye."

Its hard to imagine anything more pointless. Somewhere a computer generates the "ching-ching" sound of a cash register, as this highly intellectual discussion just billed their account another dollar or more. They would actually get a better return on their money, if while driving down the road they rolled down the window and tossed the money out. Why a better return ? Because it won't destroy their health ! Personally, I don't own a cell phone, have no interest in owning one, and take comfort to know that when I pick up a PAYPHONE
the radiation level is ZERO.

And to add insult to injury - people are PAYING BY THE MINUTE TO GET SICK ! Imagine it ! Yet the average person doesn't seem to want to connect A to B. It's always the same old tired reply from people - "it can't happen to me, it will happen to someone else, the other guy." People need to use mirrors more often because staring back at them is "the other guy !"

Children today can't seem to live without cell phones and pagers. This is so pathetic. Many spend a large part of their part-time job income to pay their monthly cell phone bills. Or they con their parents into paying for these toys they don't need. What madness is this ? With cell phone expenses running for some people a couple thousand dollars a year, wouldn't this money be better spent on college tuition ? Or buying gold and silver for when the economy tanks ? When I grew up, none of us had these toys. In theaters today, childrens and adults alike ignore the pre-movie requests to turn them off. So thoughful they are of others, especially when they ring during a movie. It wouldn't do any good to tell them "what they can do with it" because you would only get a blank stare back. Ringing cell phones in restaurants and theaters are the real true form of hate speech.

If my generation has done anything to brainwash children into thinking they MUST have these toys, I apologize for that. Perhaps the Madison Ave and 5th Ave. yuppies did this to our children ? Or did they manage to just follow temptation ? We may never know. When my children were growing up, the phone/pager craze was just beginning when they were teenagers. When our son hinted at wanting a pager, I replied "FOR WHAT ?" No real answer was forthcoming. He just wanted one because others had one. We are talking about the future health of our children. It is they who must start becoming concerned about the ill effects caused by imitating others. And the effects of endless strings of cell towers that stretch to the horizon. Today's children must start taking responsibility for the future of THEIR America in every respect.

When we got into trouble as children and then claimed a friend lead us to do something wrong, many of us remember our parents asking us "if they jumped off a bridge, would you jump, too ?" So it is with cell phone use, and it began by thinking no one can live without one. Do we have wait for a major lawsuit award, where the plaintiff is sitting in a wheel chair slumped over from brain cancer proven to be caused by his cell phone to wake up ? By then it may be too late, because once you damage enough DNA it's only a matter of time. So just like cigarettes and excess alcohol consumption- perhaps the time to stop the increase in RF radiation is NOW. Right now, not tomorrow or the day after. NOW. "

United Press International - NewsTrack - Washington proposes nuclear reprocessing

United Press International - NewsTrack - Washington proposes nuclear reprocessing: "Washington proposes nuclear reprocessing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Radioactive waste reprocessing from U.S. nuclear power plants, which has never worked in the United States, is being proposed in Washington.

Congress earmarked $50 million last month for the Energy Department to explore a new kind of reprocessing, one that would reuse a much larger fraction of the waste than had been attempted in the past, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

'Reprocessing, or processing spent fuel before it's put in the repository, is a very good way to buy time,' said Roger W. Gale, a former Energy Department official who is now an electricity consultant. 'It's a fail-safe in case we continue to have problems with Yucca Mountain.'

However, there are still questions if Yucca Mountain will be opened as a disposal site and Ernest J. Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that if the world built enough reactors to provide energy without contributing to global warming, a new Yucca Mountain would be needed every 3.5 years.

The only U.S. nuclear reprocessing plant built in the 1960s in West Valley, N.Y., left U.S. taxpayers with a cleanup bill of more than $2 billion.



� Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved"

The Norway Post : Radioactive materials found among scrap metals

The Norway Post : Radioactive materials found among scrap metals: "

Radioactive materials found among scrap metals
Sixteen small containers with radioactive materials belonging to the military forces have been found among scrap metals on a salvage depot in Mo i Rana, in the county of Nordland.

The military are still missing another 88 containers, and cannot yet explain how the containers went missing, according to NRK.

Preliminary investigations show no signs that anybody has been exposed to dangerous radiation, the National Radiation Protection Authority states.

(NRK)

Rolleiv Solholm"

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Emergency teams at Torness as nuclear fear sparks alert

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Emergency teams at Torness as nuclear fear sparks alert: "Emergency teams at Torness as nuclear fear sparks alert
ALAN MCEWEN

A FULL-SCALE alert was sparked at Torness power station last night after staff became worried about the "anomalous behaviour" of nuclear materials.

Fire crews from six stations wearing specialist equipment raced to the site after the alarm was raised at 9pm.

Workers disposing of spent fuel in the ponds at the plant said they had become aware of "anomalous behaviour" of irradiated substances.

It remains unclear the nature of the reaction that caused concern, but there was no radioactivity released.

An investigation was underway today to determine the cause of the incident.

The plant, near Dunbar in East Lothian, continued to operate during the alert. There were 38 staff on site when it happened, but all of them were accounted for and continued to work.

British Energy, which operates the plant, said that the emergency services were called in as a precaution, but there was no major panic.

A spokesman said: "Nobody has been evacuated and the plant is continuing to generate electricity.

"The emergency services were called as is normal in this situation, but we will continue to monitor the fuel pond."

He said he could not elaborate on the behaviour of the fuel that was causing them concern.

Nine fire appliances from Dunbar, East Linton, Eyemouth, McDonald Road, Liberton and Marionville all attended the scene.

A fire brigade spokeswoman said: "We were called as a precautionary measure and the crews were stood down at the station's gatehouse. None of the fire appliances were utilised."

Chris Ballance, Green MSP for South Scotland, called for the probe into the scare to be done openly.

He said: "I am very much relieved that the incident is not a threat to people or the environment.

"But I will be pressing for the results of an investigation to be made fully open to the public, and not having to be extracted through Freedom of Information requests as we had to do recently over another incident at the plant," he added.

He said the alert was a reminder of the risks associated with nuclear technology.

The power station is located on the East Lothian coast, five miles south east of Dunbar, close to the main A1 road between Edinburgh and Newcastle.

It emerged earlier this month that its lifespan was to be extended by decades. It had been expected to close in 2023, but British Energy said that updating vital equipment could extend its operating life.

News of the extension follows the Government's announcement of a fresh review of how the UK's ageing nuclear power stations can be replaced.

Environmentalists believe that the review will give the green light to build a new generation of nuclear power stations, with site next to Torness among the areas being touted.

British Energy, which has a �2 billion annual turnover, generates approximately 55 per cent of Scotland's electricity from the Hunterston 'B' nuclear power station in North Ayrshire and Torness itself.

Torness was opened in 1988 and employs about 475 people, generating approximately �25 million into the local economy.

Last year, top Edinburgh architect Malcolm Fraser put the Torness complex - which can also be seen from the east coast railway line - forward for listed building status from Historic Scotland.

"

VOA News - Venezuela Searches for Missing Radioactive Capsule

VOA News - Venezuela Searches for Missing Radioactive Capsule: "Venezuela Searches for Missing Radioactive Capsule
By VOA News
20 December 2005


Venezuelan officials are conducting an urgent national search for a container with highly radioactive material that was stolen Sunday night.

The container of Iridium-192, was being carried in a light truck in the Yaracuy state when the truck was stolen.

Government officials have gone on Venezuelan television and radio, pleading with the thieves to return the container which is about the size of a lunch box because the material inside is potentially lethal.

They also said they are working on the assumption that the target of the theft was the truck, not its cargo, and that the thieves have no idea how dangerous Iridium-192 is.

Iridium-192 is used to treat certain cancers and in industrial gauges that inspect welding seams.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, it can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, an increased risk for cancer, and even death.

Some information for this report provided by Reuters.
"

A Monumental War Crime ... DU :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch

A Monumental War Crime ... DU :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch: "A Monumental War Crime ... DU
Gerry Hiles, Iraqwar.ru

test13.jpeg

At last the facts are coming out about depleted uranium munitions ... and it is a horror story.

Follow the links in the article I am posting, if you want to begin to realize the full horror of what is being done to Iraq and, indeed, the world


Heads roll at Veterans Administration

Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed

http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.

Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, "The real reason for Mr. Principi?s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the 'Gulf War Syndrome? has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military."

Bernklau continued, "This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed."

He added, "Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of 'Disabled Vets? means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!" The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

"The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000," wrote Bernklau. "He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret?s report, (it) ... is far too big to hide or to cover up!"

"Terry Jamison, Public Affairs Specialist, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, at the VA Central Office, recently reported that 'Gulf Era Veterans? now on medical disability, since 1991, number 518,739 Veterans," said Berklau.

"The long-term effects have revealed that DU (uranium oxide) is a virtual death sentence," stated Berklau. "Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers (from the 2003 Iraq War) as 'spectacular ? and a matter of concern!?"

When asked if the main purpose of using DU was for "destroying things and killing people," Fulk was more specific: "I would say it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people!"

Principi could not be reached for comment prior to deadline.

References

1. Depleted uranium: "Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets: A death sentence here and abroad" by Leuren Moret, http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml.

2. Veterans for Constitutional Law, 112 Jefferson Ave., Port Jefferson NY 11777, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director, (516) 474-4261, fax 516-474-1968.

3. Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter. Email Gary Kohls, gkohls@cpinternet.com, with "Subscribe" in the subject line.


:: Article nr. 18886 sent on 21-dec-2005 16:16 ECT

:: The address of this page is : www.uruknet.info?p=18886

:: The incoming address of this article is :
iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/74185
"

TheDay.com, New London, CT - Millstone Foes Seek Fuller Review Of Radioactive Releases

TheDay.com, New London, CT: "
Featured in Region

Millstone Foes Seek Fuller Review Of Radioactive Releases


By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Published on 12/21/2005

An anti-nuclear group urged the governor Tuesday to broaden the state's review of past records of elevated levels of radioactivity in goats' milk from farms near Millstone Power Station in Waterford.

State officials said the review already is ?comprehensive? in scope.

In November, Gov. M. Jodi Rell requested that the state Department of Environmental Protection review records of Strontium 90 readings taken over a period of 17 years. High concentrations of the radioactive isotope, a byproduct of nuclear fission, can cause cancer.

The agency expects to report in early January on whether the readings constitute a public health threat, DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said.

?The governor asked us right from the start to undertake a comprehensive and full review and that's exactly what we're doing,? he said.

Nancy Burton, leader of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, has alleged that Millstone is the source of harmful levels of Strontium 90. On Tuesday, she held a press conference at a former dairy farm in East Lyme, where she described the data as evidence of harmful nuclear reactor emissions.

The DEP is reviewing records of Strontium 90 in samples of goats' milk taken from a farm on Dayton Road in Waterford between 1988 and 2005. The agency also is analyzing records from past testing of air, soil and cows' and goats' milk dating back more than 30 years, Schain said.

?Some of it goes back to before the plant was even operating,? he said.

The DEP's preliminary analysis shows Millstone is not responsible for elevated levels of Strontium 90 in Waterford, a DEP expert said last week. Levels of other isotopes ? such as Strontium 89 and Cesium 134 ?? would have to be present for Millstone to be responsible, Schain said.

?In addition, it is worth noting that the levels of Strontium 90 measured in the area ? no matter what their source ? are not a health risk,? he said.

Burton and another activist, Michael Steinberg, cited the now-defunct Bride Brook Dairy in East Lyme, five miles northwest of Millstone, as a place where Strontium 90 levels reached a high of more than 27 picocuries per liter on July 19, 1976.

They also presented a graph of 87 testing samples that showed levels of Strontium 90 between 1973 and 1982 that they say exceeded average levels found in milk sampled by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003.

Schain and Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the coalition's analysis isolates high readings ?out of context.?

?It's a single data point,? Schain said of the 1976 reading. ?It's critical to assess all of the data across all of the testing media and not to reach in and pull specific points of data to try and make a case.

?The data is not new,? he added. ?It's available for public review for anybody to take a look at.?


? The Day Publishing Co., 2005
For home delivery, please call 1-866-846-9099
"

Radioactive water found in new Indian Point test wells

Radioactive water found in new Indian Point test wells: "Radioactive water found in new Indian Point test wells

By GREG CLARY
gclary@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Powered by Topix.net
(Original publication: December 21, 2005)

BUCHANAN ? Federal nuclear regulators confirmed yesterday afternoon that radioactive water is showing up in storm sewer lines and recently dug wells near Indian Point 2 as engineers try to determine the cause of a four-month leak there and its presence in the site's groundwater.

A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said elevated tritium levels were found in manholes and testing wells in the area of Indian Point 2, where as much as two liters a day of radioactive water has leaked since the end of August.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of the element hydrogen.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the tritium levels found in the new wells and the sewer manholes do not constitute a public-health concern because they are not in drinking water sources, but they exceed acceptable Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Sheehan also said a well dug near the Hudson River to test for tritium showed levels of isotope below the EPA's acceptable levels of 20,000 picocuries/liter of water and that the amount of tritium released by the company into the Hudson River still falls within acceptable discharge levels.

wo hairline cracks at the base of a 400,000-gallon spent-fuel tank were found Aug. 22 during an excavation to put in a new crane to handle spent-fuel assemblies as they're being moved in and out of water for storage. Tritium, which emits a relatively weak radiation that can increase the risk of cancer, is routinely found in the water used in the 40-foot-deep tanks.

A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates the two working nuclear reactors at Indian Point, said the elevated levels in the manholes on site were not unexpected because of the sewer pipes' proximity to the testing wells.

Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said the leaking water, which has been captured by a specially designed system since early September, has all but dried up.

"We're getting an ounce over several days now," Steets said.

The company hasn't determined the cause of the leak. Entergy workers and consultants have undertaken a number of steps to find and stop it, including sending a diver into the tank to probe for flaws. Steets said the company would drill more wells and continue to search for the source and reach of the tritium.

"We have a couple more pieces of the puzzle with this latest information, but they're still not telling us enough," Steets said. "By themselves, they're not that conclusive."

Local elected officials continued to hammer the NRC and Entergy about the leak and its potential health hazards.

"The NRC needs to prove it can protect surrounding communities and the Hudson River from this leak," said Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, who asked NRC chairman Nils Diaz at a Dec. 8 meeting to intensify the agency's investigation of the leak. "We're not seeing the progress we should be in containing this problem.""

Radioactive Waste Permit Issued For Adams County - cbs4denver.com:

cbs4denver.com: Radioactive Waste Permit Issued For Adams County: "Dec 21, 2005 4:42 pm US/Mountain
Radioactive Waste Permit Issued For Adams County

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(AP) DENVER State regulators issued a permit Wednesday for a radioactive waste dump in eastern Adams County about 40 miles east of Denver.

The permit allows the Clean Harbors Deer Trail Facility to accept waste with limited concentrations of naturally occurring radioactive materials; soil and debris with naturally occurring radioactive materials from cleanup projects; and industrial waste that contains technologically enhanced, naturally occurring radioactive material.

The permit, issued by the state Department of Public Health and Environment, does not allow the site to accept human-made or artificially altered radioactive material from research, medicine, weapons, nuclear power plants or other operations, the department said in a news release.

The department also renewed Clean Harbors' hazardous waste permit for the site.


Health department director Doug Benevento said the permits were approved after extensive reviews to ensure the safety of people and the environment.

"With these approvals, Colorado water utilities and taxpayers will gain a safe and cost-effective option for disposal of very low levels of naturally occurring radioactive waste," he said.

The operation is the only licensed hazardous waste disposal site in Colorado.

(? 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
"

RGJ.com: Device that contains radioactive material lost in northwest Reno (printer-friendly article page)

RGJ.com: Device that contains radioactive material lost in northwest Reno : "
Bayer Bauserman
Device that contains radioactive material lost in northwest Reno
Ray Hagar (RHAGAR@RGJ.COM) and DAVID JACOBS (djacobs@rgj.com)
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
December 10, 2005

A moisture density gauge containing nuclear material was lost in northwest Reno on Friday night when a driver inadvertently left it on his tailgate, Reno police said.

Officials from Kleinfelder Inc., told police that the gauge was lost when the driver was en route from the Somersett development in northwest Reno to the corner of Seventh Street and McCarran Boulevard when the gauge turned up missing, police said.

"The driver's route was checked a number of times by a number of people, and the thing is still outstanding," said Reno police Sgt. Dave Evans.

The "Troxler" moisture density gauge is about 21/2-feet in length. It has a bright yellow base with two source rods rising approximately 2 feet from the base. The item weighs 35 pounds, according to police.

Moisture density gauges can contain small amounts of radioactive material and are used to measure moisture and compaction in soils, concrete, asphalt and other aggregates, according to a report from the Maryland Department of the Environment. The device is not a hazard to the public as long as the radioactive material remains locked in the device, according to the Maryland report.

The gauge emits very low levels of radioactive material when it is unopened, Reno police said. When activated, the device emits a greater level of radioactive material, but the levels are still considered very low and are not lethal, according to a police report.

If it were somehow activated, "you could get a dose equivalent to a number of X-rays," said Daniel Kammen, a professor of nuclear engineering and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

"It should not prove fatal to anyone, no matter what they did," he said by telephone at press time Friday. "It should not prove a serious health risk. But it is a little bit alarming because no one wants to get the equivalent of a number of X-rays."

The situation "really depends" on what the device is being used for, Kammen said.

"If the employee was there with it, it presumably was not in the 'on' configuration," he said.

"The worst case you can think of is that it was set up to do some testing, and for some reason was abandoned. It doesn't make any sense why that would happen," Kammen said.

"That would be a case where someone could happen upon it and basically sit with their rear end on top of it. They could get a dose that is not good."

"It shouldn't have been left around," Kammen said. "It is a little bit odd for one to be left around. There's not a lot of them sitting around to be left around. It's certainly not a good thing."

Attempts to reach Kleinfelder on Friday night were not successful. A message was left for the company.
"

Squeezed to death : SF Indymedia

Squeezed to death : SF Indymedia: "Squeezed to death
by John Pilger Sunday, Dec. 04, 2005 at 3:35 PM

Half a million children have died in Iraq since UN sanctions were imposed - most enthusiastically by Britain and the US. Three UN officials have resigned in despair. Meanwhile, bombing of Iraq continues almost daily.

03/04/200 "The Guardian" -- -- Wherever you go in Iraq's southern city of Basra, there is dust. It gets in your eyes and nose and throat. It swirls in school playgrounds and consumes children kicking a plastic ball. "It carries death," said Dr Jawad Al-Ali, a cancer specialist and member of Britain's Royal College of Physicians. "Our own studies indicate that more than 40 per cent of the population in this area will get cancer: in five years' time to begin with, then long afterwards. Most of my own family now have cancer, and we have no history of the disease. It has spread to the medical staff of this hospital. We don't know the precise source of the contamination, because we are not allowed to get the equipment to conduct a proper scientific survey, or even to test the excess level of radiation in our bodies. We suspect depleted uranium, which was used by the Americans and British in the Gulf War right across the southern battlefields."

Under economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council almost 10 years ago, Iraq is denied equipment and expertise to clean up its contaminated battle-fields, as Kuwait was cleaned up. At the same time, the Sanctions Committee in New York, dominated by the Americans and British, has blocked or delayed a range of vital equipment, chemotherapy drugs and even pain-killers. "For us doctors," said Dr Al-Ali, "it is like torture. We see children die from the kind of cancers from which, given the right treatment, there is a good recovery rate." Three children died while I was there.

Six other children died not far away on January 25, last year. An American missile hit Al Jumohria, a street in a poor residential area. Sixty-three people were injured, a number of them badly burned. "Collateral damage," said the Department of Defence in Washington. Britain and the United States are still bombing Iraq almost every day: it is the longest Anglo-American bombing campaign since the second world war, yet, with honourable exceptions, very little appears about it in the British media. Conducted under the cover of "no fly zones", which have no basis in international law, the aircraft, according to Tony Blair, are "performing vital humanitarian tasks". The ministry of defence in London has a line about "taking robust action to protect pilots" from Iraqi attacks - yet an internal UN Security Sector report says that, in one five-month period, 41 per cent of the victims were civilians in civilian targets: villages, fishing jetties, farmland and vast, treeless valleys where sheep graze. A shepherd, his father, his four children and his sheep were killed by a British or American aircraft, which made two passes at them. I stood in the cemetery where the children are buried and their mother shouted, "I want to speak to the pilot who did this."

This is a war against the children of Iraq on two fronts: bombing, which in the last year cost the British taxpayer �60 million. And the most ruthless embargo in modern history. According to Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, the death rate of children under five is more than 4,000 a month - that is 4,000 more than would have died before sanctions. That is half a million children dead in eight years. If this statistic is difficult to grasp, consider, on the day you read this, up to 200 Iraqi children may die needlessly. "Even if not all the suffering in Iraq can be imputed to external factors," says Unicef, "the Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivation in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of war."

Through the glass doors of the Unicef offices in Baghdad, you can read the following mission statement: "Above all, survival, hope, development, respect, dignity, equality and justice for women and children." A black sense of irony will be useful if you are a young Iraqi. As it is, the children hawking in the street outside, with their pencil limbs and eyes too big for their long thin faces, cannot read English, and perhaps cannot read at all.

"The change in 10 years is unparalleled, in my experience," Anupama Rao Singh, Unicef's senior representative in Iraq, told me. "In 1989, the literacy rate was 95%; and 93% of the population had free access to modern health facilities. Parents were fined for failing to send their children to school. The phenomenon of street children or children begging was unheard of. Iraq had reached a stage where the basic indicators we use to measure the overall well-being of human beings, including children, were some of the best in the world. Now it is among the bottom 20%. In 10 years, child mortality has gone from one of the lowest in the world, to the highest."

Anupama Rao Singh, originally a teacher in India, has spent most of her working life with Unicef. Helping children is her vocation, but now, in charge of a humanitarian programme that can never succeed, she says, "I am grieving." She took me to a typical primary school in Saddam City, where Baghdad's poorest live. We approached along a flooded street: the city's drainage and water distribution system have collapsed. The head, Ali Hassoon, wore the melancholia that marks Iraqi teachers and doctors and other carers: those who know they can do little "until you, in the outside world, decide". Guiding us around the puddles of raw sewage in the playground, he pointed to the high water mark on a wall. "In the winter it comes up to here. That's when we evacuate. We stay as long as possible, but without desks, the children have to sit on bricks. I am worried about the buildings coming down."

The school is on the edge of a vast industrial cemetery. The pumps in the sewage treatment plants and the reservoirs of water are silent, save for a few wheezing at a fraction of their capacity. Many were targets in the American-led blitz in January 1991; most have since disintegrated without spare parts from their British, French and German builders. These are mostly delayed by the Security Council's Sanctions Committee; the term used is "placed on hold". Ten years ago, 92% of the population had safe water, according to Unicef. Today, drawn untreated from the Tigris, it is lethal. Touching two brothers on the head, the head said, "These children are recovering from dysentery, but it will attack them again, and again, until they are too weak." Chlorine, that universal guardian of safe water, has been blocked by the Sanctions Committee. In 1990, an Iraqi infant with dysentery stood a one in 600 chance of dying. This is now one in 50.

Just before Christmas, the department of trade and industry in London blocked a shipment of vaccines meant to protect Iraqi children against diphtheria and yellow fever. Dr Kim Howells told parliament why. His title of under secretary of state for competition and consumer affairs, eminently suited his Orwellian reply. The children's vaccines were banned, he said, "because they are capable of being used in weapons of mass destruction". That his finger was on the trigger of a proven weapon of mass destruction - sanctions - seemed not to occur to him. A courtly, eloquent Irishman, Denis Halliday resigned as co-ordinator of humanitarian relief to Iraq in 1998, after 34 years with the UN; he was then Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, one of the elite of senior officials. He had made his career in development, "attempting to help people, not harm them". His was the first public expression of an unprecedented rebellion within the UN bureaucracy. "I am resigning," he wrote, "because the policy of economic sanctions is totally bankrupt. We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that . . . Five thousand children are dying every month . . . I don't want to administer a programme that results in figures like these."

When I first met Halliday, I was struck by the care with which he chose uncompromising words. "I had been instructed," he said, "to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively killed well over a million individuals, children and adults. We all know that the regime, Saddam Hussein, is not paying the price for economic sanctions; on the contrary, he has been strengthened by them. It is the little people who are losing their children or their parents for lack of untreated water. What is clear is that the Security Council is now out of control, for its actions here undermine its own Charter, and the Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. History will slaughter those responsible."

Inside the UN, Halliday broke a long collective silence. Then on February 13 this year, Hans von Sponeck, who had succeeded him as humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq, resigned. "How long," he asked, "should the civilian population of Iraq be exposed to such punishment for something they have never done?" Two days later, Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Programme in Iraq, resigned, saying privately she, too, could not tolerate what was being done to the Iraqi people. Another resignation is expected.

When I met von Sponeck in Baghdad last October, the anger building behind his measured, self-effacing exterior was evident. Like Halliday before him, his job was to administer the Oil for Food Programme, which since 1996 has allowed Iraq to sell a fraction of its oil for money that goes straight to the Security Council. Almost a third pays the UN's "expenses", reparations to Kuwait and compensation claims. Iraq then tenders on the international market for food and medical supplies and other humanitarian supplies. Every contract must be approved by the Sanctions Committee in New York. "What it comes down to," he said, "is that we can spend only $180 per person over six months. It is a pitiful picture. Whatever the arguments about Iraq, they should not be conducted on the backs of the civilian population."

Denis Halliday and I travelled to Iraq together. It was his first trip back. Washington and London make much of the influence of Iraqi propaganda when their own, unchallenged, is by far the most potent. With this in mind, I wanted an independent assessment from some of the 550 UN people, who are Iraq's lifeline. Among them, Halliday and von Sponeck are heroes. I have reported the UN at work in many countries; I have never known such dissent and anger, directed at the manipulation of the Security Council, and the corruption of what some of them still refer to as the UN "ideal".

Our journey from Amman in Jordan took 16 anxious hours on the road. This is the only authorised way in and out of Iraq: a ribbon of wrecked cars and burnt-out oil tankers. Baghdad was just visible beneath a white pall of pollution, largely the consequence of the US Air Force strategy of targeting the industrial infrastructure in January 1991. Young arms reached up to the window of our van: a boy offering an over-ripe banana, a girl a single stem flower. Before 1990, such a scene was rare and frowned upon.

Baghdad is an urban version of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The birds have gone as avenues of palms have died, and this was the land of dates. The splashes of colour, on fruit stalls, are surreal. A bunch of Dole bananas and a bag of apples from Beirut cost a teacher's salary for a month; only foreigners and the rich eat fruit. A currency that once was worth two dollars to the dinar is now worthless. The rich, the black marketeers, the regime's cronies and favourites, are not visible, except for an occasional tinted-glass late-model Mercedes navigating its way through the rustbuckets. Having been ordered to keep their heads down, they keep to their network of clubs and restaurants and well-stocked clinics, which make nonsense of the propaganda that the sanctions are hurting them, not ordinary Iraqis.

In the centre of Baghdad is a monument to the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam Hussein started, with encouragement from the Americans, who wanted him to destroy their great foe, the Ayatollah Khomeini. When it was over, at least a million lives had been lost in the cause of nothing, fuelled by the arms industries of Britain and the rest of Europe, the Soviet Union and the United States: the principal members of the Security Council. The monument's two huge forearms, modelled on Saddam's arms (and cast in Basingstoke), hold triumphant crossed sabres. Cars are allowed to drive over the helmets of dead Iranian soldiers embedded in the concourse. I cannot think of a sight anywhere in the world that better expresses the crime of sacrificial war.

We stayed at the Hotel Palestine, once claiming five stars. The smell of petrol was constant. As disinfectant is often "on hold", petrol, more plentiful than water, has replaced it. There is an Iraqi Airways office, which is open every day, with an employee sitting behind a desk, smiling and saying good morning to passing guests. She has no clients, because there is no Iraqi Airways - it died with sanctions. The pilots drive taxis and sweep the forecourt and sell used clothes. In my room, the water ran gravy brown. The one frayed towel was borne by the maid like an heirloom. When I asked for coffee to be brought up, the waiter hovered outside until I was finished; cups are at a premium. His young face was streaked with sadness. "I am always sad," he agreed matter-of-factly. In a month, he will have earned enough to buy tablets for his brother's epilepsy.

The same sadness is on the faces of people in the evening auctions, where intimate possessions are sold for food and medicines. Television sets are the most common items; a woman with two toddlers watched their pushchairs go for pennies. A man who had collected doves since he was 15 came with his last bird; the cage would go next. Although we had come to pry, my film crew and I were made welcome. Only once, was I the brunt of the hurt that is almost tangible in a society more westernised than any other Arab country. "Why are you killing the children?" shouted a man from behind his bookstall. "Why are you bombing us? What have we done to you?" Passers-by moved quickly to calm him; one man placed an affectionate arm on his shoulder, another, a teacher, materialised at my side. "We do not connect the people of Britain with the actions of the government," he said. Laith Kubba, a leading member of the exiled Iraqi opposition, later told me in Washington, "The Iraqi people and Saddam Hussein are not the same, which is why those of us who have dedicated our lives to fighting him, regard the sanctions as immoral."

In an Edwardian colonnade of Doric and Corinthian columns, people come to sell their books, not as in a flea market, but out of desperate need. Art books, leather bound in Baghdad in the 30s, obstetrics and radiology texts, copies of British Medical Journals, first and second editions of Waiting For Godot, The Sun Also Rises and, no less, British Housing Policy 1958 were on sale for the price of a few cigarettes. A man in a clipped grey moustache, an Iraqi Bertie Wooster, said, "I need to go south to see my sister, who is ill. Please be kind and give me 25 dinars." (About a penny). He took it, nodded and walked smartly away.

Mohamed Ghani's studio is dominated by a huge crucifix he is sculpting for the Church of Assumption in Baghdad. As Iraq's most famous sculptor, he is proud that the Vatican has commissioned him, a Muslim, to sculpt the Stations of the Cross in Rome - a romantic metaphor of his country as Mesopotamia, the "cradle of Western civilisation". His latest work is a 20-foot figure of a woman, her child gripping her legs, pleading for food. "Every morning, I see her," he said, "waiting, with others just like her, in a long line at the hospital at the end of my road. They are what we have been forced to become." He has produced a line of figurines that depict their waiting; all the heads are bowed before a door that is permanently closed. "The door is the dispensary," he said, "but it is also the world, kept shut by those who run the world." The next day, I saw a similar line of women and children, and fathers and children, in the cancer ward at the Al Mansour children's hospital. It is not unlike St Thomas's in London. Drugs arrived, they said, but intermittently, so that children with leukaemia, who can be saved with a full course of three anti-biotics, pass a point beyond which they cannot be saved, because one is missing. Children with meningitis can also survive with the precise dosage of antibiotics; here they die. "Four milligrams save a life," said Dr Mohamed Mahmud, "but so often we are allowed no more than one milligram." This is a teaching hospital, yet children die because there are no blood-collecting bags and no machines that separate blood platelets: basic equipment in any British hospital. Replacements and spare parts have been "on hold" in New York, together with incubators, X-ray machines, and heart and lung machines.

I sat in a clinic as doctors received parents and their children, some of them dying. After every other examination, Dr Lekaa Fasseh Ozeer, the oncologist, wrote in English: "No drugs available." I asked her to jot down in my notebook a list of the drugs the hospital had ordered, but rarely saw. In London, I showed this to Professor Karol Sikora who, as chief of the cancer programme of the World Health Organisation (WHO), wrote in the British Medical Journal last year: "Requested radiotherapy equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics are consistently blocked by United States and British advisers [to the Sanctions Committee in New York]. There seems to be a rather ludicrous notion that such agents could be converted into chemical or other weapons."

He told me, "Nearly all these drugs are available in every British hospital. They're very standard. When I came back from Iraq last year, with a group of experts I drew up a list of 17 drugs that are deemed essential for cancer treatment. We informed the UN that there was no possibility of converting these drugs into chemical warfare agents. We heard nothing more. The saddest thing I saw in Iraq was children dying because there was no chemotherapy and no pain control. It seemed crazy they couldn't have morphine, because for everybody with cancer pain, it is the best drug. When I was there, they had a little bottle of aspirin pills to go round 200 patients in pain. They would receive a particular anti-cancer drug, but then get only little bits of drugs here and there, and so you can't have any planning. It is bizarre."

In January, last year, George Robertson, then defence secretary, said, "Saddam Hussein has in warehouses $275 million worth of medicines and medical supplies which he refuses to distribute." The British government knew this was false, because UN humanitarian officials had made clear the problem of drugs and equipment coming sporadically into Iraq - such as machines without a crucial part, IV fluids and syringes arriving separately - as well as the difficulties of transport and the need for a substantial buffer stock. "The goods that come into this country are distributed to where they belong," said Hans von Sponeck. "Our most recent stock analysis shows that 88.8% of all humanitarian supplies have been distributed." The representatives of Unicef, the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation confirmed this. If Saddam Hussein believed he could draw an advantage from obstructing humanitarian aid, he would no doubt do so. However, according to a FAO study: "The government of Iraq introduced a public food rationing system with effect from within a month of the imposition of the embargo. It provides basic foods at 1990 prices, which means they are now virtually free. This has a life-saving nutritional benefit . . . and has prevented catastrophe for the Iraqi people."

The rebellion in the UN reaches up to Kofi Annan, once thought to be the most compliant of secretary-generals. Appointed after Madeleine Albright, then the US representative at the UN, had waged a campaign to get rid of his predecessor, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, he pointedly renewed Hans von Sponeck's contract in the face of a similar campaign by the Americans. He shocked them last October when he accused the US of "using its muscle on the Sanctions Committee to put indefinite 'holds' on more than $700 million worth of humanitarian goods that Iraq would like to buy." When I met Kofi Annan, I asked if sanctions had all but destroyed the credibility of the UN as a benign body. "Please don't judge us by Iraq," he said.

On January 7, the UN's Office of Iraq Programme reported that shipments valued at almost a billion and a half dollars were "on hold". They covered food, health, water and sanitation, agriculture, education. On February 7, its executive director attacked the Security Council for holding up spares for Iraq's crumbling oil industry. "We would appeal to all members of the Security Council," he wrote, "to reflect on the argument that unless key items of oil industry are made available within a short time, the production of oil will drop . . . This is a clear warning." In other words, the less oil Iraq is allowed to pump, the less money will be available to buy food and medicine. According to the Iraqis at the UN, it was US representative on the Sanctions Committee who vetoed shipments the Security Council had authorised. Last year, a senior US official told the Washington Post, "The longer we can fool around in the [Security] Council and keep things static, the better." There is a pettiness in sanctions that borders on vindictiveness. In Britain, Customs and Excise stops parcels going to relatives, containing children's clothes and toys. Last year, the chairman of the British Library, John Ashworth, wrote to Harry Cohen MP that, "after consultation with the foreign office", it was decided that books could no longer be sent to Iraqi students.

In Washington, I interviewed James Rubin, an under secretary of state who speaks for Madeleine Albright. When asked on US television if she thought that the death of half a million Iraqi children was a price worth paying, Albright replied: "This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it." When I questioned Rubin about this, he claimed Albright's words were taken out of context. He then questioned the "methodology" of a report by the UN's World Health Organisation, which had estimated half a million deaths. Advising me against being "too idealistic", he said: "In making policy, one has to choose between two bad choices . . . and unfortunately the effect of sanctions has been more than we would have hoped." He referred me to the "real world" where "real choices have to be made". In mitigation, he said, "Our sense is that prior to sanctions, there was serious poverty and health problems in Iraq." The opposite was true, as Unicef's data on Iraq before 1990, makes clear.

The irony is that the US helped bring Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to power in Iraq, and that the US (and Britain) in the 1980s conspired to break their own laws in order, in the words of a Congressional inquiry, to "secretly court Saddam Hussein with reckless abandon", giving him almost everything he wanted, including the means of making biological weapons. Rubin failed to see the irony in the US supplying Saddam with seed stock for anthrax and botulism, that he could use in weapons, and claimed that the Maryland company responsible was prosecuted. It was not: the company was given Commerce Department approval.

Denial is easy, for Iraqis are a nation of unpeople in the West, their panoramic suffering of minimal media interest; and when they are news, care is always taken to minimise Western culpability. I can think of no other human rights issue about which the governments have been allowed to sustain such deception and tell so many bare-faced lies. Western governments have had a gift in the "butcher of Baghdad", who can be safely blamed for everything. Unlike the be-headers of Saudi Arabia, the torturers of Turkey and the prince of mass murderers, Suharto, only Saddam Hussein is so loathsome that his captive population can be punished for his crimes. British obsequiousness to Washington's designs over Iraq has a certain craven quality, as the Blair government pursues what Simon Jenkins calls a "low-cost, low-risk machismo, doing something relatively easy, but obscenely cruel". The statements of Tony Blair and Robin Cook and assorted sidekick ministers would, in other circumstances, be laughable. Cook: "We must nail the absurd claim that sanctions are responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people", Cook: "We must uphold the sanctity of international law and the United Nations . . ." ad nauseam. The British boast about their "initiative" in promoting the latest Security Council resolution, which merely offers the prospect of more Kafkaesque semantics and prevarication in the guise of a "solution" and changes nothing.

What are sanctions for? Eradicating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, says the Security Council resolution. Scott Ritter, a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq for five years, told me: "By 1998, the chemical weapons infrastructure had been completely dismantled or destroyed by UNSCOM (the UN inspections body) or by Iraq in compliance with our mandate. The biological weapons programme was gone, all the major facilities eliminated. The nuclear weapons programme was completely eliminated. The long range ballistic missile programme was completely eliminated. If I had to quantify Iraq's threat, I would say [it is] zero." Ritter resigned in protest at US interference; he and his American colleagues were expelled when American spy equipment was found by the Iraqis. To counter the risk of Iraq reconstituting its arsenal, he says the weapons inspectors should go back to Iraq after the immediate lifting of all non-military sanctions; the inspectors of the international Atomic Energy Agency are already back. At the very least, the two issues of sanctions and weapons inspection should be entirely separate. Madeleine Albright has said: "We do not agree that if Iraq complies with its obligations concerning weapons of mass destruction, sanctions should be lifted." If this means that Saddam Hussein is the target, then the embargo will go on indefinitely, holding Iraqis hostage to their tyrant's compliance with his own demise. Or is there another agenda? In January 1991, the Americans had an opportunity to press on to Baghdad and remove Saddam, but pointedly stopped short. A few weeks later, they not only failed to support the Kurdish and Shi'a uprising, which President Bush had called for, but even prevented the rebelling troops in the south from reaching captured arms depots and allowed Saddam Hussein's helicopters to slaughter them while US aircraft circled overhead. At they same time, Washington refused to support Iraqi opposition groups and Kurdish claims for independence.

"Containing" Iraq with sanctions destroys Iraq's capacity to threaten US control of the Middle East's oil while allowing Saddam to maintain internal order. As long as he stays within present limits, he is allowed to rule over a crippled nation. "What the West would ideally like," says Said Aburish, the author, "is another Saddam Hussein." Sanctions also justify the huge US military presence in the Gulf, as Nato expands east, viewing a vast new oil protectorate stretching from Turkey to the Caucasus. Bombing and sanctions are ideal for policing this new order: a strategy the president of the American Physicians for Human Rights calls "Bomb Now, Die Later". The perpetrators ought not be allowed to get away with this in our name: for the sake of the children of Iraq, and all the Iraqs to come

4 December 2005
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Newest test well at nuclear site shows much higher contamination

Newsday.com: Newest test well at nuclear site shows much higher contamination: "Newest test well at nuclear site shows much higher contamination
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press Writer

December 2, 2005, 5:45 PM EST

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The water in a new well near the spent-fuel pool at the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant is contaminated with radioactive tritium at a level 30 times higher than the federal standard for drinking water, officials said Friday.

The well was drilled by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of the plant in Buchanan, as part of an attempt to find the source of a small leak from the 40-foot-deep pool, which holds the highly radioactive fuel assemblies that have been used in the nuclear reactor.

The leak was discovered in August when moisture was spotted on the outside wall of the pool, beneath ground level, during an adjacent excavation. Concern grew in October when low levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope, were found in water at the bottom of six sampling wells on the Indian Point property.

Tritium is present in the pool water, along with strontium and cesium.

The worst reading from those wells was just slightly above the drinking water standard, which is 20,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of water. But according to data on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Web site, thenew well yielded samples with tritium at 600,000 picocuries per liter.

Large amounts of tritium can damage internal organs.

The wells are dug only for sampling the ground water and are not drinking water sources.

However, critics have expressed fears that the tritium beneath Indian Point could eventually work its way into drinking water supplies or into the nearby Hudson River. Entergy plans to dig eight more wells to try to map the underground flow of contaminated water as well as to find the leak.

Both Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, and Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said the finding was not unexpected, given that the well was within 5 feet of the pool.

But Steets said it does not necessarily mean that the pool is the source of the leak or that the contamination of the groundwater is new. It could have persisted from earlier, repaired leaks, he said.

Steets said that when more wells are dug, officials will have a better idea of where to look.

"One well by itself is not much of an identifier," he said. He noted that the leak at the pool has diminished to as little as 10 to 25 milliliters per day, down from 1,000 to 1,500 milliliters.

Officials thought they might have found the source of the leak last month when they saw three discolored areas on the inside wall of the pool. But a diver, heavily shielded against radiation, tested the spots and no leak was found.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc."

LOS ALAMOS / Plutonium could be missing from lab / 600-plus pounds unaccounted for, activist group says

LOS ALAMOS / Plutonium could be missing from lab / 600-plus pounds unaccounted for, activist group says: "LOS ALAMOS
Plutonium could be missing from lab
600-plus pounds unaccounted for, activist group says
- Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Enough plutonium to make dozens of nuclear bombs hasn't been accounted for at the UC-run Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and may be missing, an activist group says in a new report.

There is no evidence that the weapons-grade plutonium has been stolen or diverted for illegal purposes, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research said. However, the amount of unaccounted-for plutonium -- more than 600 pounds, and possibly several times that -- is so great that it raises "a vast security issue," the group said in a report to be made public today.

The institute, which is based in Takoma Park, Md., says it compared data from five publicly available reports and documents issued by the U.S. Energy Department and Los Alamos from 1996 to 2004 and found inconsistencies in them. It says the records aren't clear on what the lab did with the plutonium, a byproduct of nuclear bomb research at Los Alamos.

A spokesman for UC, which manages the national laboratories at Los Alamos and Livermore for the Energy Department, did not address the report's specifics but said the New Mexico lab tracks nuclear material "to a minute quantity."

The report says there are several possible explanations for what happened to the plutonium. They include:

-- It was discarded in unsafe amounts in landfills at the Los Alamos lab. It is legal to discard weapons-grade plutonium in landfills, one of which is 40 feet deep, as long as the substance is sufficiently diluted. However, if a landfill holds too much plutonium, the material can eventually contaminate the environment -- for example by leeching into groundwater or being absorbed by the roots of plants -- study co-author Arjun Makhijani said in an interview.

-- It was shipped to an Energy Department burial site in a New Mexico salt mine, without accurate records of such shipments being kept.

-- It was stolen or otherwise shipped off site for unknown reasons.

"If it has left the site, then it obviously has the most grievous security implications," Makhijani said. "I cannot say that it has left the site, but the government has the responsibility to ensure that it has not.

"And the University (of California) obviously has a responsibility in this. It should be a grave embarrassment for the university to be sitting on numbers like this and discrepancies like this, and not have resolved them."

UC spokesman Chris Harrington said Los Alamos "does an annual inventory of special nuclear materials which is overseen by (the Energy Department). These inventories have been occurring for 20-plus years. Special nuclear materials are carefully tracked to a minute quantity."

The report concludes that at least 661 pounds of plutonium generated at the lab over the last half-century is not accounted for. The atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 contained about 13 pounds of plutonium.

"The security implications . . . are extremely serious, since less than 2 percent of the lowest unaccounted-for plutonium is enough to make one nuclear bomb," the report said.

The problem of plutonium accounting began worrying lab critics in the mid-1990s, when Energy Department officials released lab records as part of the Clinton administration's openness initiative.

Critics found they had trouble determining exactly what the lab was doing with the plutonium waste that is generated during the manufacture of spherical plutonium "pits," the fissile triggers of nuclear bombs.

Makhijani said he and colleagues from two other activist groups hoped the problem would be resolved in August 2004, when they sent a letter of complaint to then-Los Alamos Director G. Peter Nanos. Nanos was trying to reform lab operations after highly publicized scandals over UC management of Los Alamos.

Nanos and lab officials did not respond, though, and nine months later Nanos left for a different job. Makhijani said he and associates had decided to make their report public to dramatize federal officials' failure to resolve the puzzle of the missing plutonium.

Makhijani received his engineering doctorate at UC Berkeley with specialization in plasma physics and nuclear fusion. The institute is funded by sources including the Ford Foundation and San Francisco's Ploughshares Fund.

UC has joined Bechtel National and other industrial partners in a bid to retain its contract to run Los Alamos, in a competition against a consortium consisting of Lockheed-Martin, the University of Texas, several New Mexico universities and various industrial partners.

Makhijani says he isn't taking sides in the competition but that he would prefer the weapons labs be run by industrial contractors rather than universities. The reason, he said, is that university connections to the weapons labs tend to lead to restraints on free inquiry and speech within the universities.

E-mail the author at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com.

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