[CPEO-MEF] Trial begins for woman trying to warn recruits

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Washington
Trial begins for woman trying to warn recruits
By Eric Sorensen
Seattle Times staff reporter

A retired English teacher and substance-abuse counselor, Ellen Murphy
wanted to honor Veterans Day the best way she knew: by warning future
soldiers about the radiation in U.S. munitions left in the Iraq desert.

The local Bellingham recruiting office was closed for the holiday so
Murphy, 66, visited the next day. She handed out materials warning of
depleted uranium in U.S. munitions, which she and others blame for
numerous Gulf War illnesses and a contaminated Iraq desert.

"Just from a housewife's point of view, you don't make a new mess until
you've cleaned up the last one," she said yesterday. "And we haven't
figured out what's killing young veterans."

She was arrested on a garden-variety trespassing charge but her trial,
which begins today in Bellingham Municipal Court, will stir the debate
over the dangers of depleted uranium.

Her lawyer is invoking a "necessity defense," contending that Murphy's
alleged crime — second-degree trespassing — was necessary to avoid a
greater harm that might befall soldiers with a new Gulf War looming. He
plans to call as an expert witness Dr. Doug Rokke, a former Army health
physicist and opponent of use of depleted uranium in munitions.

This article can be viewed at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134632012_uranium11m.html

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