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Thus is from Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, priest, writer, film maker who organised the Rime to Baghdad flight and the Paris one which was cancelld. Subject: Iraq DU: From Father Benjamin, Italy, new web site Date: Fri, Oct 20, 2000, 4:29 am Iraq DU: From Father Benjamin, Italy, new site http://www.benjaminforiraq.org/ Dear friends, When I gave a press conference in Paris a couple of years ago for the launch of my book "Irak : l'apocalypse", where I denounced the impact of radioactivity on the Iraqi population as a result of the use of weapons with depleted uranium against Iraq during the Gulf War, one of the journalists stood up and said: "But Father, if that were true, we would know about it". Today, reading the press, seeing the media and seeing the concern of parlamentarians in many countries, one sadly begins to realise that it was true. In December 1998, when the British and American forces bombarded Iraq once again, I was in Baghdad. My cameraman (Francesco Bistocchi) and I filmed what we saw: the bombings by night and the effects of the bombs by day. When I returned, the disinformation in the press was revolting: it referred to "intelligent missiles", the "clean war" (no more than 66 civilians killed, when in fact there were more than 1800), regrettable "side-effects"... and the same language was used a year later during the Balkan bombings. In 1999, I presented a report to the Italian parliament on "The effects of the embargo and radioactive contamination on the Iraqi population". When I was summoned for a hearing by the the Chamber of Deputies' Foreign Affairs Commission, one Member of Parliament said to me: "In fact, nobody knows whether the depleted uranium weapons used in Iraq caused strong toxicity or radioactive contamination". I answered that this is precisely the problem. How is it that 10 years after the Gulf War, none of the Western governments have been informed of the sad reality of the radioactive contamination of the whole ecological system and of the population in Iraq? Not to mention the 200,000 American war veterans and the thousands of British, French, Canadians, Belgians and soldiers of other countries who are suffering terrible illnesses as a result of the radioactive contamination caused by their own weapons! With an Italian crew (see our web site), we made two films: "Iraq: the birth of time" and "Iraq: journey to the forbidden kingdom". Few television companies have been willing to broadcast the disturbing evidence given in these films. So far, with the help of my collaborators, we have fought this difficult battle on our own to make people aware of what is really happening in Iraq. Despite difficulties, we have continued to cry scandal at the deliberate extermination of a people by bombardment, embargo and radioactive contamination. This is a difficult undertaking, which is why I now need your help and your support. To be able to act more effectively, we have founded an association, "The Benjamin Committee for Iraq". For this suffering people, but also to stop this "culture of death" and the dangers it represents for humanity as a whole, I know I can count on your support. Thank you for anything you can do. Yours truly Jean-Marie Benjamin info@benjaminforiraq.org ----------------------------- Forwarded by: Marco Saba http://stop-u238.i.am ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk