[CPEO-MEF] Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium
By LARRY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR
Tuesday, November 12, 2002

SOUTHERN DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Iraq -- On the "Highway of Death," 11 miles
north of the Kuwait border, a collection of tanks, armored personnel
carriers and other military vehicles are rusting in the desert.

They also are radiating nuclear energy.

In 1991, the United States and its Persian Gulf War allies blasted the
vehicles with armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium -- the
first time such weapons had been used in warfare -- as the Iraqis
retreated from Kuwait. The devastating results gave the highway its
name.

Today, nearly 12 years after the use of the super-tough weapons was
credited with bringing the war to a swift conclusion, the battlefield
remains a radioactive toxic wasteland -- and depleted uranium munitions
remain a mystery.

Although the Pentagon has sent mixed signals about the effects of
depleted uranium, Iraqi doctors believe that it is responsible for a
significant increase in cancer and birth defects in the region. Many
researchers outside Iraq, and several U.S. veterans organizations,
agree; they also suspect depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War
Syndrome, the still-unexplained malady that has plagued hundreds of
thousands of Gulf War veterans.

This article can be viewed at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/iraq2002/95178_du12.shtml

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