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February 3, 2003

Dear Senator Allard,

Whether we go to war with Iraq or not, there is an INCREDIBLY URGENT situation that must be addressed for the health and safety of the hundreds of thousands of our uniformed troops BEFORE they are called to march into Iraq. The United States Military is putting every man and woman in our ground forces in a position of incredible danger, not from enemy fire or biological weapons, nor from friendly fire, but from the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY of exposure to highly toxic and radioactive airborne particulates resulting from use of munitions containing Depleted Uranium.

Is there nothing we can do to ban all munitions containing radioactive materials from the battlefield?

It is unconscionable that military commanders would knowingly place our brave soldiers, our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, in such danger. And some humanitarian regard must be given for the millions of innocent Iraqi civilians who will have to put up with the residual radiation for the 4.5 BILLION year half-life of  Depleted Uranium in their direct living environment. Please take the few minutes necessary to read the following points, and especially item #4.

I have become convinced that the following facts which are becoming more and more widely known throughout our country and the world, are both true and verifiable:

1. Roughly 22% (135,000 out of 600,000) of our Gulf War veterans are sick and/or dying from a variety of maladies lumped together as Gulf War Syndrome. 9600 of our brave soldiers have already died. These maladies include leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, and a higher than normal incidence of severely malformed offspring born after their return from the war (1994 issue of LIFE magazine). Typical veterans’ symptoms include loss of bladder and bowel control, loss of feeling in skin tissues, general malaise and tiredness, abnormal bone growth in extremities. Malformations in offspring include blindness, infants born with no arms and/or legs, infants born with leukemia, bone cancers and brain cancers.

2. The symptoms and maladies these men and women have experienced are all typical of radiation exposure caused by internal ingestion of radioactive particles. They are similar to symptoms and maladies experienced by hundreds of British soldiers who served in Bosnia and to symptoms and maladies experienced by thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians as well. To date, 48 U.S. soldiers who served in Kosovo have died of leukemia. Cancer rates in Iraq increased by a factor of TEN after the war. These same symptoms are now appearing among the civilian population in Afghanistan.

3. Although the U.S. Military continues to claim that Depleted Uranium (300 tons of which was used in the Gulf War; over 9 tons used in Bosnia; an unknown quantity in Afghanistan) used in various munitions is safe, they have in fact not only been lying to the American Public, they have hindered every serious MEDICAL investigation designed to determine whether Gulf War Syndrome has any relation to radiation exposure from Depleted Uranium. They have summarily fired VA doctors and scientific researchers who have correctly fingered Depleted Uranium as the culprit after finding Depleted Uranium in urine samples of over 60% of the patients studied. In fact, the U.S. Military has directly and criminally refused to follow a 1993 DIRECTIVE by the U.S. CONGRESS to produce detailed research on the effects of inhaled Depleted Uranium.

4. The Department of Energy has admitted that Depleted Uranium stocks have been “contaminated” with plutonium and other radioactive elements from nuclear waste stockpiles. In fact, to date, THOUSANDS OF TONS of NUCLEAR WASTE have been mixed with the Depleted Uranium that is used for these Depleted Uranium munitions. This is clearly evidenced from the fact that Uranium-236, an isotope that does NOT exist in nature or in depleted uranium, is present in the urine samples of  veterans and civilians exposed to the Iraqi, Bosnian and Afghan battlefields. The ONLY place U-236 and transuranium elements, which include plutonium (which is 200,000 times as radioactive as uranium!), americium, and neptunium, can be produced are in the heart of nuclear reactors. These elements are among the most TOXIC substances on the earth and are known to produce some of the MOST SEVERE radiation damage on exposure.

5. The U.S. Military has said that the low-level alpha radiation emitted by Depleted Uranium is safe, in that the particles do not penetrate the skin. However, over a century of scientific and medical research have PROVEN that alpha particles INSIDE the body wreak havoc with the body’s natural functions on nearly every level, from cellular through organ. And urine samples from all of the above-mentioned victim groups have shown U-234, U-235, U-236 and U-238 in their urine. For Gulf War veterans, these isotopes are showing up NINE FULL YEARS AFTER the Gulf War. There can be NO QUESTION that these men and women have been suffering from radiation sickness!

6. Just how did these radioactive particles come to be ingested? Two ways. First, at the high velocities of projectiles, the outer layer of uranium atoms oxidizes and vaporizes into the air, leaving a “jet contrail” in the projectile’s wake. (Actual film footage shows this wake of radioactive particles.) Second, when the warhead strikes home, additional oxidation and vaporization takes place, with the added problem that the ensuing explosion and conflagration rapidly disperses these uranium oxides into the air and surrounding environment. The picture is worsened by the fact that the uranium itself is flammable at these temperatures. The simple act of breathing the air anywhere in the vicinity of a burning tank or bunker would permanently lodge quantities of these radioactive oxides in the lungs. From there, absorption into the body (over a period of years) through the blood stream and distribution throughout the body’s organs takes its insidious toll.

7. It is interesting that military films have been developed that emphasize the need for full body and respiratory protection (read “moon suits”) when working around areas where Depleted Uranium shells have been exploded. These films have NOT been distributed widely among our armed forces, and at the same time the army denies that there is any risk to exposure. Do the films not belie the U.S. Military dogma and destroy its credibility on this issue? If the army KNOWS of the danger but does not provide the means and training for its own soldiers to protect themselves, is not the army being criminally negligent? The difference between this and Agent Orange is that in 2003 WE KNOW that we have a dangerous substance on our hands.

8. Weapons containing Depleted Uranium are being sold world-wide. At least 20 countries now have them in their arsenals, and unlike true nuclear weapons, there is no stigma attached to their use for any perceived reason. Whatever action we take in the United States must be followed up with an effective program to eliminate this scourge from the entire world.

Please, as one compassionate human being to another, I implore you to look into these matters before we actually begin operations in Iraq. At this point, there is no question that legislation banning radioactive weapons (and especially those containing Depleted Uranium) will cause some logistic problems, perhaps even delaying a planned date of attack. But the question is, aren’t the lives and health of our young men and women worth the inconvenience?

Sincerely,

Dr. Dan Bishop, Ph.D.

PO Box 437

Saguache, CO 81149

e-mail: andar81149@yahoo.com

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