Depleted Uranium: Subjection of Italy to The Interests of The USA-Nato and the Consequences of the "Humanitarian War"

The state prosecutor of Lanuesei has ordered  the exhumation of the corpses of 18 shepherds died from 1995 to 2010 due to tumors, which have one fact in common: they led their herds to pasture in the area near the military polygon of Nato-joint forces at Perdas de Fogu-Salto of Quirra. The decision has been emanated after the report of the Local Health Authority that many of the shepherds were dead due to leukaemia and that some livestock was born deformed. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has indicated a nuclear physicist  Prof. Evandro Lodi Rizzini of Brescia University  and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) of Geneva to carry out all the necessary checks on the case.

Nothing new on the grounds of Sardinia where in the past some solders had died due to so called “Balkans-Quirra-Escalaplano syndrome”. The military victims at the national level can also be correlated with the various operative theaters where the Italian armed military forces had taken place: Somalia – Kosovo – Iraq – Afghanistan and where the NATO  had made a large use of a ammunition like depleted uranium, for military training at polygons as well.

The aggressive war against Serbia in 1999 shouldn’t be forgotten, where the bombs and missiles containing uranium have been used in great quantities against civil and military targets.

The territory of Sardinia has been subject of so called “servitù militari” (military slavery), non for the national interests (this is to remember the basis of the peace act signed by Italy after the Second World War according to which it is not possible for Italians to build aero naval base on the territory of the isle), with some very important polygons of Teulada on 7200 hectares:the peninsula in Sulcis Inglesiente for the training of the Sixth USA Fleet, the areas probably used for aero naval battle drill of NATO or tanks drill at Salto di Quirra 12700 hectares covering the polygon for experimental missile and  Sixth Fleet and NATO interforces’ ranges, Capo Frasca 1416 hectares NATO  e USA’s range, radar installations, heliport and logistic basis. There is also a great military airport at Decimomannu to add to this list of foreign military basis, as well as the basis at  La Maddalena Santo Stefano, Tempio and Tavolara.

The president of the Association of national victims engaged in the Armed forces, Falco Accame,

who struggles for years side by side the  contaminated soldiers, greeted  the initiative of the prosecutor of Lanusei that could be able to clear out the question  about the deaths of the soldiers and the civilians, with possible incrimination for multiple assassination and the environmental disaster.

INSTEAD IN USA

Los Alamos National Lab

oratory “Long-Term Fate of Depleted Uranium at Aberdeen and  Yuma Proving Grounds Final Report, Phase I: Geochemical Transport And Modeling”, LA-117 90-MS, DE90 012660 (1990), Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico 87545, USA declare that on the polygons where the ammunition containing DU had been used, Aberdeen and Yuma, the desert areas in the interior territory of the United States, could not be settled by the humans unless after previous land clearance- (1)

In the Jefferson county (Indiana), the Pentagon has closed a polygon of range, about 80 hectares, where once the howitzers had been tested, hit by DU. The minimum cost  budget estimated  for clearance of the area is about 7,8 milliards of dollars – without taking into consideration everlasting storage of the ground 6 m deep and the elimination of the vegetation. Concerning that the price was too high, the army has looked for other solutions and in the end had decided to offer the territory to the National Park’ service in order to create a nature reserve, the offer that has been rejected. They say in these days that the ex-polygon of range would be recognized as “the zone of national sacrifice” with the prohibition of access for eternity as a consequence! These news tell us about the future of the various areas on the planet where the United States have used and will use the weapons containing depleted uranium.

ITALIAN SOLDIERS

Until 2010 the number of deaths of Italian soldiers has raised up to 216 cases, meanwhile the number of the soldiers contaminated by DU is up to 2500, according to the statement of Francesco Palese, the responsible of “Association of Victims of Uranium”; by the way  the latest official estimation provided by Military Health Authority is dated 2006.. …

The question about DU goes over the limits of Sardinia and involves in its complexity all the Italian Armed Forces engaged abroad (and the civilians engaged for the IAF with the task of maintenance of vehicles), exposed to contaminating effects of DU having  poor and late information and protection in the missions so called “humanitarian”, where Italy has almost no interests at all. These are the effects, which have been silenced  by the media, that  the civilians in the Balkans were subjected to by the West, as well as the civilians in the Middle East and probably in Libya in the years to come,  that has recently become the subject of “humanitarian bombardment of the NATO”.

It is necessary to take into consideration that only brave initiatives of some aggressive judges, associations and individuals have made some steps forward, meanwhile in the politics almost nothing has been done which proves one more time that there is no intention to find out anything. In fact “the commission Mandelli”, so called thanks to its coordinator Prof. Mandelli, has found really a little, made void due to the statistics errors during the investigation, pointed out by  Prof. Lucio Bertoli Barsotti of Torino University who has made his statement as follows:

 There is a statistics error in the investigation elaborated in the report of Mandelli. In particular, this error does non permit the Commission to find out  real “significant statistics” regarding  the number of cases of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma ( i.e. the fact that the number of the cases is abnormal compared to the incidence of spontaneous appearance of the disease and it  is reasonably unexplainable  mere appearance of the case) found within the group of soldiers took in consideration.

Re: “ Preliminary report of the committee chaired by the Professor Franco Mandelli, established by the Minister of Defence in order to investigate about the incidence of malignant neoplasms  among the military personnel  engaged in Bosnia andKosovo, and published on website of Ministry of Defence. As it may be noted, this study is in  course of evolution. However, Prof. Mandelli has arrived at the conclusion that the number of diseased was within the national average (“non significant statistics”), in particular the Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – the type of tumour that has raised a greater suspect due to the strange number of cases observed-, the conclusions that were registered as  official documents and made public through the madia, newspapers, radio   and      TV  ( something like a massage that wanted to inform “ the alarm is over”).

The report of the Committee established by the Ministry of Defense, hence partial, chaired by Prof Mandelli – professor without tenure at the Rome University La Sapienza – section Haematology, contains the number of cases expected and the cases observed, for all types of tumour pathology, in two schedules, the no. 8 and the no. 9. They are referred to two possible approaches of counting the pathological cases: the first covers all the military personnel and the second chooses only one part, supposing the latent period of 12 months for the disease to come out.. Now, the fact is that due to the data reported in the schedules we can deduce that (CM obviously  not noticed  due to some methodological errors during the elaboration of the data) as far as LH is concerned there is the significant excess of the cases observed, among the military personnel as well as among the group of soldiers with the hypothetic  latent period for the disease (no need to add that the persistence of these analysis regarding “significance” is “significant” by itself too).

“However the same Committee has avoided to analyse the cases before 1996 (3), leaving apart on  purpose the operation “Restore Hope in Somalia” in 1992/3, Bosnia in 1995 and the first Golf war in 1991.

The above schedules do not include the Italian civilians, foreigners and  discharged soldiers, then there was no comparison of the risks due to the nanoparticle of uranium and those of metals like tungsten  which can be found in traditional weapons. These are only some of the errors non caused by the committee that terminated its activity in 2002.

The conclusions are very upsetting:

1. the malignant neoplasms, that were considered globally, were less present than estimated;
2. there is an excess of statistically significant number of cases of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma among the military personnel engaged in Bosnia and Kosovo;
3. the results of the analysis on random sample done on the soldiers engaged in Bosnia and Kosovo have not evidenced the DU contamination (4); due to the data noted down, or the information actually available, it was not possible to sort out the causes of the excess of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cases  pointed out in the epidemiologic analyse.

The conclusion is that the number of diseased was within the national average, and the causes were non the heavy metals or the radiation emitted by  the weapons on depleted uranium.

The second report of the Committee established in Parliament in 2005 and terminated in 2007 has found out nothing new. It was noted : “ out of the checks and testimonies carried out in Balkans…there were no clear evidence affirming that the pathologies in question should be provoked by the contaminating and radioactive effects caused by the exposure to the ionized radiation or chemical contamination due to this type of ammunition. It seems important to notice that, since nowadays, according to the Committee, there have been no traces of DU in the histological samples of the soldiers employed in the missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, who developed tumour pathologies. (4)

Also according to the second report of the Committee of the Ministry of Defence, partial too, the results were negative or casual…or the evidence has non been sought where it could be found if all the necessary instruments had been used and if there were a contribution of  impartial scientific staff.

Concerning this, we will present the studies of  Dr Maria Antonietta Gatti, in charge of the biomaterial laboratory at the department of neuroscience  of the University of Reggio Emilia e Modena: the studies treat the contamination from nanoparticles, nano powder deposed into the environment, caused by the explosion in war or on polygons of range, which enter in organisms through the air o by nutrition. Nanoparticles are manufactured with the highest temperature of about 3000°C (the impact of missile containing DU on the tanks).

Dr Gatti and some researchers, members of the team working on the project on the European level, have found out in military sector one of the principal method useful for discovering the causes of nano pathologies. The studies have evidenced the presence of nano particles with heavy metal structure inside of the tissue samples of ex-soldiers operating in Balkans or Middle Est. The conclusion achieved is that “the syndrome of Balkans” is not caused by radioactivity of DU, but by nano particles liberated in atmosphere after the explosion, causing various forms of tumour. (4)

Balkans

Falco Accame contested immediately the results of the report of Committee of Mandelli basing his opinion onto the number of the soldiers considered for the analyses amounting about 27.000-30.000 soldiers employed in Balkans, reaching the number of 43.000 including Albania, Croatia, Macedonia e Slovenia. Accame affirms, instead, that it is necessary to take in consideration only a small part of the personnel engaged  particularly in Bosnia, where the security measures were not applied, meanwhile in Kosovo starting from  November 22nd, 1999 after the orders issued, the same have been applied. This fundamental incongruity makes void the affirmation from the report of Committee of Mandelli, because it is necessary to take into account the real number of the soldiers employed and exposed to the risk, which later on may be compared to the number of cases recorded as presumably contaminated.

ITALIAN CIVILIANS CONTAMINATED IN BALKANS

Along with  the military personnel, the civilians were contaminated too, following the troops as logistic support. The case that has been denounced by the “Military Observatory“ is  the worker responsible for  maintenance of caterpillars(Polo Mantenimento Pesante Sud), who contracted blood cancer, meanwhile the other cases, reported by the same,  contracted acute leukaemia.

In Bosnia, during the operations Beny Flight from  August 5^th to  September 22^nd 1994 and Deliberate Force from  August 29^th to September 14^th 1995, 10.000 DU missiles were released from fighter planes A-10 onto the ground and about 400 missiles from the war cruises Tomahawk, meanwhile in Kosovo, in the area from Pec to Djakovica, about 14.000 bombs and missiles were launched onto the zone controlled by Italians. It is estimated that about 4 tons of DU was present in the area supervised by Italians, compared to the total of 10 tons in the whole “theatre” (note: the Italian area was most hit by DU weapons compared to those controlled by USA, merely nonexistent, as a proof of high USA geopolitical interests in joke in order to create a bridge of control over the Balkans and the mines full of natural resources in Kosovo).

AGRESSION AGAINST SERBIA: on the Balkans theatre there was a premeditated aggression against Serbia in 1999, where other bombs and missiles with DU were released other bombs and missiles with DU in order to submit the will of Serbian people and their resistance. The capital of Belgrade was bombarded too.

Collateral effects: Since now the only fact certain is that  thousands of people had been subjected to the effects of DU from 1994 to 1999, with obvious increase of various tumours, leukaemia as well as kidney  diseases. It should be noted that, apart from the criminal conduction of the war, the international war convention has not been respected either. The NATO liberators did not disdain the use of biological weapons; some parasites were thrown onto the Serbs’ cultivations and the chemical industry was hit by missiles in the town of Pancevo near Belgrado. This can be described as a real chemical attack  which no international institution has condemned by now.

KOSOVO -  POOR PREVENTION

The superficiality with which the Italian soldiers were induced to operate is pointed out in the book and Dvd “Italy called”, describing the operating theatre in Balkans. Among other things, an operation named in code “Vulcano” is mentioned here: 1999 Kosovo, the Italian soldiers buried all the ammunition unused and left by USA forces and NATO in an enormous pit, and blew it up with explosive material.  Nobody of military personnel had  protective garments and masks and as a consequence had to breathe in the toxic dust emitted after setting off. Some years later, out of 14 men forming the team employed in the operation, 8  got ill, 2 died of cancer and some got the children with genetic deformation.

It may have been enough if someone from the Defence had been informed better in order to avoid the risks to which the Italian troops were exposed. The famous “Golf syndrome” that hit a lot of USA and Allied soldiers was not one of the stories invented by a journalist in search of publicity.

The cause, more than in the radiation contained in the ammunition, is to be sought in the toxic impact on kidneys because DU is a heavy metal highly pollutant for the surrounding environment. Among 600.000 soldiers deployed in the war against Iraq in 1991, more than 50.000 were subjected to grave disorders and from 5-10.000 soldiers are dead (D.D’Onofrio). Also the Greenpeace published in 1999 a study where the effects of DU weapons have been elaborated, concluding that the “principal impact on health is due to toxic effects”.

The studies carried out by the environmental section ONU and published in 2003, have discovered that in the air and the ground of Bosnia there were traces of DU seven years after the use of the same weapons, but at the same time affirms that it is “very improbable that the uranium could be correlated to the health problems noticed in the area, and strangely the same organisation

“ recommends to pick up the fragments of DU, to cover the contaminated area by asphalt or another layer of ground and to design on the maps the contaminated zones”.

In the Near East, in Iraq the Britannic and USA forces used immensely the ammunition containing DU. Ramsey Clark, the founder of International Action Centre, already Attorney General(USA) – Director of Public Prosecutions (GB), declared at the time that according to his estimation 350 tons

of DU had been dispersed on the Iraqi ground adding : “I was able to observe the effects of this new toxic substance in the occasion of my visit to the infantile  hospitals in Iraq. Initially in the drama of bombardments and famine due to the sanctions, doctors could not realize the increase of infantile tumours like leukaemia, syndrome of Hodgkin’s and lymphoma” (wwpublisch.com).

It is certain that weapons containing DU were used in the summer campaign of 2006 conducted by Israele against Lebano, and furthermore, without any doubt, the forces of the coalition alliance have been using the perforating armament heads containing DU these days. In the Focus on foreign policy of Berkely (California) it is considered certain 100 % the use of it, and they say that during the bombing by bombers B52, 24 hours after the initial attack on Gheddafi and against civil targets, 45 tons of bombs were launched.

BOMBS AND MISSILES: WHY IS DU USED?

From 1991, initially with the Golf War and finally with the War in Libya occurring nowadays, we have been  witness of escalation of the use of bombs and missiles containing DU.

The use of this material, which comes from the waste of power stations and nuclear industries in general, originates in 1970 during the Cold war between the NATO  and  Warsaw Pact.

The Pentagon has received the reports from their secret service containing the information that Soviet Union had been working on a new tank armour to be applied to their armaments, which would be able to neutralize the effects of perforating ammunition used until then by the USA and their Allies.

After numerous experiments, the USA researchers, discovered that the DU was the best  material  for new perforating missiles and anti-shelters’ o anti-tanks’ bombs. The main reason lays in heaviness of DU, which is better than tungsten, and, furthermore due to its heat resistance (arrives at the temperature  3000°C high) permits the missiles to pass through the thick tank armour and shelter walls,  usually the base of headquarters, without any problem. Compared to tungsten, its cost is relatively low, and USA in this way could avoid to be dependent on the import of this metal, mainly produced in China and, moreover, they  could benefit  autonomy in case of war.

Federico Dal Cortivo

 Common weapons and ammunition that normally use depleted uranium

Gbu (Guided Bomb Unit)24 Laser guide – indicated against tanks and armoured shelters

Gbu-28

Blue-109 AGAINST SHELTERS

Blue-107 AGAINST AIRPORT STRIPS

Cruise Missiles Tomahawk

Perforating missiles 30 mm used by the fighters A10

Missiles against tanks APFSDS 105/120mm

MK-149-2 20mm

PGU/20 20 mm

1. M.Lina Veca
2. Foundation Pasti
3. Victims of uranium (vittime uranio.com)
4. Military slavery in Sardinia-Flori-Ledda
5. Robert J.Parson – Day Wiliams, Mystery Metal, Nightmare in Afhanistan?