[casi] Fwd: Time to question US weapons of indiscriminate effect

[Jo Baker <jobak17@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>]

[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]


Dear Dirk
Here is Dai's evaluation of the weapons. Julia doesn't believe that the
fireballs Colette saw could have been the daisycutters as they were
used quite a way out of Baghdad and visiblity is very poor due to the
heavy barage of smoke from the oil fires. I don't believe even the US would
use a daisycutter inside a city!?! Don't know what else though.
I agree that the terrible slicing of people would have been cluster
bombs and the bus bombing an anti tank missile with shaped-charged
warhead.
In rage!!
Jo

 joanne baker <wildsandcat@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 23:59:58 +0100 (BST)
From: joanne baker
Subject: Fwd: Time to question US weapons of indiscriminate effect
To: jobak17@yahoo.co.uk

--- Dai Williams wrote: >
From: "Dai Williams"
> To:
> CC: ,
> "joanne baker"
> Subject: Time to question US weapons of
> indiscriminate effect
> Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 13:10:14 +0100
>
>
>
> Dear Weekend programmes and WATO team
>
> Please can you ask the Pentagon to explain why and
> how many Daisy cutters, fragmentation bombs and
> suspected uranium weapons it has used in the last
> week in the region around now in the outskirts of
> Baghdad? And please can you ask the UK Government
> whether it condones the use of Daisy cutters in
> populated areas with large numbers of civilians?
>
> I have been investigating US guided weapons as an
> independent researcher for 2 years. My primary
> concern are the 23 suspected uranium weapon systems.
> But my investigations include similar weapons like
> thermobaric bombs, daisy cutters etc.
>
> Full weapons identification requires inspection on
> site by trained and independent weapons analysts.
> This must be a high priority for the UN.
> Ex-military personnel, HALO or similar demining
> organisations may help. Serving military personnel
> will simply lie about more advanced, prototype or
> illegal weapons.
>
> Less trained observers can partly narrow down
> suspected weapon systems from descriptions of their
> explosions and from injuries on victims.
>
> The following reports were received yesterday via
> CASI (the Cambridge University based Campaign
> Against Sanctions in Iraq) forwarded this report
> from two Belgian Doctors in Baghdad.
>
> Partial answers to their questions are as
> follows(colours are my highlighting of relevant
> text):
>
> Incident 1:
> is a clusterbomb description. These are already
> recognised as weapons of indiscriminate effect by
> the media.
>
> Incident 2:
> 3 April, Al Sqifal, near Hilla 'The bodies were al
> carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn into
> pieces,....One wonders what a criminal weapon of
> massdestruction could have caused these horrors.
> Nobody had heard the sound of an explosion; on the
> bodies no traces of shrapnel were found. A
> journalist spoke of a heat-weapon with liquid cupper
> or something like that..
>
> The reference to a heat weapon with liquid copper
> sounds like a misquote of someone describing an anti
> tank weapon with a shaped charge warhead. (HEAT
> also stands for High Explosive AntiTank weapons).
> Shaped charge warheads use a focussed explosive
> blast with a copper (or uranium) core that is melted
> by the blast and travels at very high velocity to
> cut through armour plating. "Heat" in the context
> may also be describing the obvious effects of an
> incendiary weapon.
>
> If the weapon was fired from the check point (ground
> to ground) it must have been an anti-tank missile
> e.g. JAVELIN which uses a tandem shaped charge
> warhead. Recently purchased by UK forces I question
> whether JAVELIN warheads use a depleted uranium core
> like the prototype that DERA and the MOD made and
> tested in 1999 (refer MOD website). This would
> produce a far higher temperature (5000 degrees)
> blast than copper and may account for the
> characteristic severe burns on
> victims."Carbonisation" was typical of uranium
> weapon victims on the highway of death in 1991.
> Shaped charge weapons do not create shrapnel - they
> work by projecting a lance of burning molten metal,
> almost a plasma, into the target.
>
> Similar effects would have been caused by the larger
> Hellfire or Maverick missiles though these are fired
> by planes or helicopters, not referred to in this
> report.
>
> QUESTION: What weapon was used by US forces in this
> incident? Did it contain a Uranium warhead?
>
> Incident 3:
> "Colette saw from her hotel room, just behind the
> mosque in this neighborhood, two enormous fireballs
> coming down."
> The only weapons that match this description are the
> BLU-82 Daisy Cutter bombs. Developed in Vietnam for
> clearing jungle into runways they created immense
> pressure (1000 lbs / sq inch) over a large area -
> lethal from 300 to 900 metres.
> http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-82.htm
>
> They literally mash and burn any human beings under
> the blast area causing extensive internal injuries,
> severe burns but no shrapnel wounds from the high
> pressure blast. Rather like high-blast napalm in
> effect but the bombs are 10-20 times larger.
>
> =====
>
> The two doctors providing these reports are in
> Baghdad. Dirk, their contact in Belgium, is on
> 0032-6833 9670.
>
> A reliable UK contact is Joanne Baker in Bristol who
> knows Collette. Jo is on 0117-902 6534.
>
> ===
>
> Incident 4
> - is from a separate report from BBC reporter Adam
> Mynot yesterday (5 April) described civilian
> casualties with severe burns near Nasiriyah. "The
> Phosphorus turned the inside of his house white
> hot". This is the first reference I have heard to
> Phosphorus weapons in the current war.
>
> A more likely alternative may have been a guided
> bomb with a uranium warhead e.g. GBU 31 or 32 (for
> increased penetration and incendiary effects). UK
> researchers located US patents for upgrading the
> 2000 lb BLU-109/B hard target warhead (used in the
> GBU-15, 24, 27 and 31 guided bombs) with a choice of
> tungsten or depleted uranium. See Appendix 2 of my
> summary "Hazards of Uranium weapons in Afghanistan
> and Iraq", October 2002 at
> http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/u23.htm and extracts at
> http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/pdfs/USpats.pdf
>
> These mini (just under 1 ton) bunker busters were
> used extensively in the earlier Baghdad bombing.
> The explosions with intense fireballs at ground
> level and incandescent metal in their explosion
> plumes are highly suspected of using uranium
> warheads.
>
> The existence and use of guided bombs and missiles
> with uranium warheads is vigorously denied by the UK
> MOD saying that the Pentagon have assured them that
> such weapons don't exist. I don't trust either
> statement. In addition to causing horrific burns on
> casualties near the fireball such weapons are likely
> to be causing hundreds, possibly up to 1500, tons of
> uranium oxide contamination in target regions of
> Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad.
>
>
> ==
>
> It is really important that media reports question
> what kinds of weapons are being used by US (and UK)
> forces - especially when large numbers of casualties
> or fatalities are seen with unusual injuries e.g.
> the fire and blast effects described in the
> incidents above.
>
> The civilian casualties cause most obvious outrage.
> But there are very few questions about, or reports
> of, the forms of mutilation and death inflicted on
> Iraqi troops. It is customary in times of war to
> demonise the enemy. But much of the Iraqi army are
> conscripts..
>
> Injuries to every involved in war - civilians and
> troops of all sides - are very serious issues.
> After World War 2 there was sufficient horror for
> consensus about the Geneva Conventions. The US
> Military and arms industry have shown supreme
> contempt for international humanitarian law ever
> WW2.
>
> If this war shows one thing it is the need for the
> World to start to get control over the barbarity of
> the US military industrial context. Criticisms of
> Saddam Hussein's record of atrocities fade into
> history as they are eclipsed by the industrialised
> killing that US Forces have spent billions of
> dollars perfecting.
>
> A new War Crimes Tribunal will be needed in Iraq as
> soon as hostilities cease - to inspect the targets
> and casualties of US weapon systems throughout Iraq.
> This will of course require a dramatic awakening of
> the UK Government and Conservative Opposition from
> the "war-trance" spell cast on them by Pentagon
> propaganda.
>
> There will be one mighty reckoning to follow soon
> for the US and UK Governments (if and) when
> independent international observers are allowed into
> Iraq.
>
>
> Dai Williams
> Woking, Surrey
> eosuk@btinternet.com
> 01483-222017 07808-502785
>
> ======= original message ===========
> Dirk Adriaensens
> wrote:
>
> From: "Dirk Adriaensens"
> To:
> Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 19:52:31 +0200
> Subject: [casi] reports Belgian medical team, from
> Baghdad
>
>
> [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email
> ]
>
> Dear list,
>
> here are two more reports from the 2 Belgian
> doctors who are still in baghdad. Tomorrow,
> saturday, Medical Aid for the Third World, in
> cooperation with SOS Iraq, will send 2 more medical
> doctors to Baghdad to reinforce their medical team.
> We think it is very important that impartial reports
> of "non-embedded" sources keep reminding us about
> the horrors of this war. This war is particularly
> "dirty", and many innocent civilians die. And the
> lies keep coming. Remember that independent
> journalist are being harrassed, locked up, tortured
> and even killed by "friendly fire". A Belgian
> TV-journalist, who is in the south of Iraq, has
> described the hostilities of British troups against
> him yesterday in the 8 o'clock news. Disgraceful.
> Now the US/UK-aggressors are using new types of
> bombs and ammunition. Can anyone tell me more about
> this type of bombs, which Geert describes in the
> first report? It has something to do with liquid
> copper or something. Horrible. Why doesn't the BBC
> report about this? Surely they must have access to
> these places, have knowledge about these incidents,
> because these regions are under US/UK control, they
> say. To me and others all around the world, the BBC
> has lost all its credibility. They can't be trusted
> anymore. They have proven to be a part of the US/UK
> war-machine. Masks have fallen. Shame on them.
> Greetings.
> Dirk Adriaensens.
> www.irak.be
>
>
http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/two_belgian_doctors_in_baghdad.htm
> About the horrors of war, 100 km south of Baghdad
>
> Bert de Belder april 4 2003
>
> [INCIDENT 1 ] "I have two awful stories to tell",
> Geert immediately starts when I get him on the line.
> "Today we drove to Hilla, a small town near Babylon
> that was heavily bombed yesterday. One poor district
> was hit by 20 to 25 bombs. The hospital of Hilla
> received in the next half an hour 150 seriously
> injured patients. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Mukhtar said that
> the wounds were caused by clusterbombs. These are
> bombs that explode into many small bombs that again
> explode individually and cause enormous damage.
> Clusterbombs are banned by the International Laws on
> War, but Bush completely disregards these! In the
> hospital I have seen very many abrading situations.
> A family of eleven persons, of whom six are dead. A
> father who is left with one child; his wife and two
> sons are dead. Small children with amputated limbs."
>
> [INCIDENT 2 ] "My second story is even more
> horrible", warns Geert. "About a bus with civilians
> that was fired upon. Not the one in Najaf, which
> reached the news everywhere, but a case that
> according to me has not yet been covered by western
> media. Three days ago, In Al Sqifal, near Hilla, a
> passenger bus was fired upon from an American
> checkpoint, with ghastly results. According to
> witnesses the bus stopped on time and had, on orders
> of the American Military, turned back. Dr. Saad
> El-Fadoui, a 52 years old surgeon who still has
> studied in Scotland, was immediately on the place of
> incident from the hospital in Hilla. When he told me
> what he had seen there, he again became very
> emotional, three days after it had happened. 'The
> bodies were al carbonized, terribly mutilated, torn
> into pieces, he sighs. 'In and around the bus I saw
> dismembered heads, brains and intestines,..' One
> wonders what a criminal weapon of massdestruction
> could have caused these horrors. Nobody had heard
> the sound of an explosion; on the bodies no traces
> of shrapnel were found. A journalist spoke of a
> heat-weapon with liquid cupper or something like
> that.. Can the Americans be really that cruel? Dr.
> Saad El-Fadoui asked us repeatedly to do everything
> to help stop this horrible war of aggression.
>
> [INCIDENT 3] Geert understands me poorly when I
> say something, the line is not always clear. "We are
> momentarily without electricity", he explains.
> "Large blocks in Baghdad are without electricity,
> last night the bombardment was very severe. Colette
> (Geert's college-doctor Dr. Collete Moulaert) saw
> from her hotel room, just behind the mosque in this
> neighborhood, two enormous fireballs coming down. I
> think that these are containerbombs of about 7-8
> tons each that cause enormous vibrations. "I am
> shivering of the cold", Collete said, but this was
> the vibration caused by the bomb explosion.
>
>

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