Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 26. August
2005 / Timeline August 26, 2005
Version 3.5
25. August 2005, 27. August 2005
08/26/2005
Mærsk er storleverandør til Pentagon
A.P. Møller-Mærsk er på top tre over udenlandske
firmaer, der har de største kontrakter med det amerikanske
militær. Siden år 2000 er værdien af kontrakterne
næsten fordoblet, så de er omkring fire milliarder
kroner værd i år, skriver Berlingske Nyhedsmagasin.
08/26/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of
Defense
Maersk Line, Limited, Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $25,900,821
firm-fixed-price contract with reimbursables subject to the
availability of fiscal year 2006 funds. The contract is for the
operation and maintenance of eight fast sealift ships. These ships
move cargo primarily in support of deployed U.S. military forces
worldwide. This contract includes four one-year options, which, if
exercised, would bring the total value of the contract to
$134,796,176. The ships will be primarily maintained at U.S. East
Coast and Gulf Coast ports in reduced operating status, but must be
deployable worldwide when activated. Work performance is worldwide,
and is expected to be completed by September 2010. Contract funds
will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This
contract was competitively procured with more than 50 proposals
solicited and offers received. The Military Sealift Command,
Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity
(N00033-05-C-5340).
08/26/2005
Radioactive Wounds of War : Tests on returning troops
suggest serious health consequences of depleted uranium use in
Iraq
By Dave Lindorff,
In These Times
- http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298/
Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour
a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New
York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate,
Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit
had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan
Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and
had tested positive.
Matthew, 31, decided that since he'd spent much of his time in Iraq
lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he'd better get tested too. It
turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.
Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of
their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common
to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right
hand had only two digits.
So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other
genetic disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for
causing her deformity and angry at a government that never warned
him about DU's dangers.
U.S. forces first used DU in the 1991 Gulf War, when some 300 tons
of depleted uranium--the waste product of nuclear power plants and
weapons facilities--were used in tank shells and shells fired by
A-10 jets. A lesser amount was deployed by U.S. and NATO forces
during the Balkans conflict. But in the current wars in Afghanistan
and, especially, Iraq, DU has become the weapon of choice, with
more than 1,000 tons used in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 tons
used in Iraq. And while DU was fired mostly in the desert during
the Gulf War, in the current war in Iraq, most of DU munitions are
exploding in populated urban areas.
The Pentagon has expanded DU beyond tank and A-10 shells, for use
in bunker-busting bombs, which can spew out more than half a ton of
DU in one explosion, in anti-personnel bomblets, and even in M-16
and pistol shells. The military loves DU for its unique penetration
capability--it cuts through steel or concrete like they're
butter.
The problem is that when DU hits its target, it burns at a high
temperature, throwing off clouds of microscopic particles that
poison a wide area and remain radioactive for billions of years. If
inhaled, these particles can lodge in lungs, other organs or bones,
irradiating tissue and causing cancers.
Worse yet, uranium is also a highly toxic heavy metal. Indeed,
while there is some debate over the risk posed by the element's
radioactive emissions, there is no debate regarding its chemical
toxicity. According to Mt. Sinai pathologist Thomas Fasey, who
participated in the New York Guard unit testing, the element has an
affinity for bonding with DNA, where even trace amounts can cause
cancers and fetal abnormalities.
Dr. Doug Rokke, a health physicist at the University of Illinois
who headed up a Pentagon study of depleted uranium weapons in the
mid '90s after concerns were raised during the Gulf War, concluded
there was no safe way to use the weapons. Rokke says the Pentagon
responded by denouncing him, after earlier commending his work.
No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have been contaminated by DU
residue. Despite regulations authorizing tests for any military
personnel who suspects exposure, the U.S. military is avoiding
doing those tests--or delaying them until they are meaningless.
"When we asked to be tested at Ft. Dix, they wrongly told us we
didn't have to worry unless we had DU fragments in our body," says
Matthew. His buddy, Sgt. Ramos, who exhibits symptoms resembling
radiation sickness and heavy metal poisoning, adds that at Walter
Reed Medical Center he was grilled for hours about why he wanted to
be tested and was then branded a troublemaker by his own unit.
Matthew says Walter Reed "lost" his sample.
At the war's start, the United States refused to allow U.N. or
other environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now
the United Nations won't even go near Iraq because of security
concerns.
"It doesn't seem right that we are poisoning the places we are
supposed to be liberating," Ramos says.
The Pentagon continues to insist, on the basis of no field
evidence, that DU is safe. To date, only some 270 returned troops
have been tested for DU contamination by the military and Veterans
Affairs. But even those tests, mostly urine samples, are useless 30
days after exposure, because by that time most of the DU has left
the body or migrated into bones or organs.
Gonzalez and the Daily News paid for costlier tests for nine
Guardsmen--tests that could pinpoint uranium inside the body and
identify the special isotope signature of man-made DU. Four of the
nine tested positive for DU; all had symptoms of uranium
poisoning.
Even harder evidence may soon arrive. Connecticut State
Representative Pat Dillon (D-New Haven), a Yale-trained
epidemiologist, has crafted state-level legislation that
Connecticut and Louisiana have unanimously passed, authorizing
returned National Guard troops to request and receive specialized
DU contamination tests at the Pentagon's expense. This approach
bypasses the Pentagon's feet-dragging because National Guard troops
fall under state, rather than federal, jurisdiction.
"This was not a Democratic or a Republican issue," Dillon says.
"These are our kids and someone needs to protect them." She says
that since passage of her bill, which takes effect this October,
military groups and family organizations, state legislators, and
even National Guard unit commanders have contacted her for copies
of her bill to promote in their states. Bob Smith, a veteran in
Louisiana who got hold of Dillon's bill and spearheaded a
successful effort to pass similar legislation in Louisiana, claims
that 14 to 20 other states are considering similar measures.
If enough Guard troops avail themselves of the testing--and start
testing positive for contamination--it seems likely that reservists
and active duty troops and veterans will demand similar access to
rigorous tests, which can cost upwards of $1000 per person.
One way or another, the Pentagon will pay a price. "DU is a war
crime. It's that simple," Rokke says. "Once you've scattered all
this stuff around, and then refuse to clean it up, you've committed
a war crime."
Dave Lindorff, an In These Times contributing editor, is the author
of This Can’t Be Happening: Resisting the Disintegration of
American Democracy. His work can be found at This Can’t Be
Happening.
08/26/2005
Poll: 90 percent support right to protest war
Survey also gauges public on Bush's handling of Iraq policy
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - An overwhelming number of people say critics of the
Iraq war should be free to voice their objections — a rare
example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided
the nation along partisan lines.
Nearly three weeks after a grieving California mother Cindy Sheehan started her anti-war protest near
President Bush’s Texas ranch, nine of 10 people surveyed in
an AP-Ipsos poll say it’s OK for war opponents to publicly
share their concerns about the conflict.
“Part of the Constitution is the First Amendment,” said
Mike Malone, a salesman from Odessa, Fla. “We have the right
to disagree with the government.”
08/26/2005
Efter at orkanen Katerina rammer Louisiana, erklæres staten i
undtagelsestilstand.
08/26/2005
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