[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL, CLOSURE: U.S. bases in Iraq

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pentagon Weighs Cleanups as It Plans Iraq Exit

By DINA FINE MARON
Greenwire/New York Times
January 13, 2010

As the U.S. military prepares to leave Iraq, the Pentagon is wrestling 
with questions about environmental cleanup on the bases it plans to 
transfer to the Iraqi Army by December 2011.

At issue on and around the bases are unexploded ordinance, depleted 
uranium from munitions, spilled oil and contaminated ash in burn pits.

There is no set answer about what -- if anything -- the military must do 
to mitigate environmental damage. Though there are clear environmental 
policies for permanent U.S. bases overseas, they do not apply to 
contingency operations like those in Iraq.

"There's nothing in international law, U.S. law, or executive orders 
that guide [U.S.] policy" in such operations, said David Mosher, a 
senior policy fellow at RAND and co-author of a 2008 report for the Army 
on environmental considerations during contingency operations. "It's a 
huge loophole," he said. "There's nothing in DOD policy that says 
anything should be done."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/13/13greenwire-pentagon-weighs-cleanups-as-it-plans-iraq-exit-21915.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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