[CPEO-MEF] URANIUM, GLOBAL: Depleted Uranium munitions in Afghanistan

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Is Karzai's Accusation That Coalition Forces Are Polluting  
Afghanistan with Nuclear Material Accurate or an Over-Reaction?
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent comment that U.S. and NATO-led  
forces use weapons with "nuclear components" may be a reference to  
depleted-uranium munitions, whose health impact is still being studied

By Larry Greenemeier  |
Scientific American
Saturday, June 25, 2011

President Obama has called for the withdrawal of 33,000 U.S. troops  
from Afghanistan over the next year and the remaining 68,000 by the  
end of 2014, but questions linger regarding what the troops are  
leaving behind after more than nine years of combat. In particular,  
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has accused U.S. and NATO-led  
coalition troops of littering his country with weapons that use  
"nuclear components."

Karzai made this comment last week during an address to the  
Afghanistan Youth International Conference, throughout which he  
broadly criticized coalition forces and pointed out that the U.S. has  
been in negotiations with the Taliban in an attempt to end the  
fighting set off by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. U.S.  
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, during an appearance June 19 on  
CNN's State of the Union news program, confirmed such negotiations  
had taken place. Less clear, however, are exactly which weapons  
Karzai was referencing and their long-term impact on the Afghani  
people and their country.


...

For the entirea article, see
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=afghanistan-karzai- 
us-depleted-uranium

--

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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