| On January 10, 2007, President Bush unveiled | | | | [10] |
| his "New Way Forward in Iraq." [1] He | | | | |
| admitted that the American people find the | | | | During the Khamisiyah event, thousands of |
| present situation in Iraq unacceptable. Yet, | | | | U.S. troops were tasked with rigging hundreds |
| in spite of it all, he has committed another | | | | of "Wal-Mart sized" ammunitions bunkers with |
| 21,000 plus U.S. troops who will march off to | | | | explosives in order to destroy physical |
| Iraq to fight a corporate war that many | | | | evidence that countries such as Great |
| Americans now perceive as being driven by big | | | | Britain, Russia, Jordan, and the United |
| oil profits and industrial war profiteers. | | | | States had illegally sold weapons of mass |
| Bush's "New Way Forward" will unavoidably | | | | destruction to the Iraqis. U.S. servicemen |
| translate to an "Old Way Backward" for | | | | working inside the bunkers during the initial |
| soldiers deployed to the Persian Gulf. By | | | | engineering phase captured footage of these |
| sending additional soldiers to Iraq, the | | | | illegal weapons on videotape. This footage |
| president of the United States is adding | | | | appears in the award-winning documentary |
| 21,000 names to the list of those afflicted | | | | "Beyond Treason" [11] along with an |
| with depleted uranium poisoning due to simple | | | | impressive number of other incriminating |
| environmental contamination. Americans must | | | | documents obtained from the Pentagon under |
| come to understand that the Pentagon's use of | | | | the Freedom of Information Act, which |
| radioactive weaponry on the battlefield over | | | | effectively describe the unlawful mindset and |
| the past two decades is tantamount to | | | | treasonous actions of some of our highest |
| officially sponsored involuntary human | | | | military leaders. |
| experimentation. | | | | |
| | | | Conceivably, the largest experiment of all |
| Human experimentation by the United States | | | | was requiring our servicemen and women to |
| military complex is nothing new. | | | | receive the experimental anthrax vaccine. |
| Declassified documents dating back six | | | | During the first Gulf War, our service |
| decades have exposed hundreds of questionable | | | | personnel were inoculated with experimental |
| and illegal programs sponsored by the | | | | vaccines containing aluminum hydroxide, |
| Department of Defense. It wasn't until the | | | | mercury, and squalene. It was done in hast |
| summer of 1975 that congressional hearings | | | | and without proper approval from the F.D.A. |
| revealed to the public for the first time | | | | |
| that the C.I.A. and the D.o.D. had conducted | | | | U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Rachael Lacy, 22, is a |
| experiments on both consenting and unwitting | | | | casualty of the Pentagon's compulsory anthrax |
| human subjects as part of an extensive | | | | vaccination program. She died in 2003 after |
| program to influence and control human | | | | receiving the anthrax and smallpox |
| behavior through the use of psychoactive | | | | inoculations. After a coroner ruled that the |
| drugs. MKULTRA was just one of about 160 | | | | shots contributed to her death, the Defense |
| mind control programs that the United States | | | | Department was finally forced to admit that |
| government was sponsoring in the late 1950's. | | | | two independent panels of medical experts had |
| [2] These projects were only the tip of the | | | | concluded that the vaccinations could very |
| iceberg. The public would later learn of | | | | well have caused the illness that killed |
| atomic vets exposed to radioactive atomic | | | | Specialist Lacy. According to the "Vaccine |
| blasts [3]; the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in | | | | Risk Awareness Network," adverse reactions to |
| which 64% of the men "studied" died from | | | | the anthrax vaccine range from 40% in men to |
| syphilis or complications arising thereof | | | | 70% in women and symptoms can range from |
| [4]; and open air testing, where U.S. | | | | severe bone and joint pain, to loss of |
| military were allowed to spray large U.S. | | | | vision, severe skin problems, blackouts and |
| cities with biological agents for the purpose | | | | loss of consciousness, grand mal seizures, |
| of studying infection delivery patterns. | | | | internal organ problems, ALS, multiple |
| | | | sclerosis -- and death. [12] |
| However, in 1991 the Department of Defense | | | | |
| would take mass experimentation to a whole | | | | Perhaps the most damaging law pertaining to |
| new level with the introduction of depleted | | | | experimentation on soldiers without informed |
| uranium (DU) munitions on the battlefield. | | | | consent comes under the Clinton |
| This bold decision would forever change the | | | | administration in the form of E.O. 13139. |
| meaning of the term "nuclear war." It's | | | | [13] This Executive Order requires military |
| important to understand that the Department | | | | personnel to receive experimental vaccines |
| of Defense was aware of the deadly effects of | | | | not approved by the F.D.A. and denies |
| radioactive weaponry and clearly recommended | | | | soldiers the right to refuse experimental |
| its development as a "poison gas warfare | | | | vaccines. This law treats U.S. servicemen as |
| weapon" in a 1943 declassified Army memo to | | | | if they were experimental guinea pigs with no |
| Brigadier General L. R. Groves, known now | | | | more rights than the average lab rat. Past |
| simply as the "Groves Memorandum." This is | | | | experiments conducted at Fort Detrick |
| the earliest known reference to the weapons | | | | chemical and biological warfare center in |
| that would later become the military's number | | | | Maryland, showed that nine of the |
| one choice for killing tanks in the theatre | | | | twenty-seven anthrax strains tested killed 50 |
| of war. [5,6] | | | | percent of the vaccinated subjects. [14] |
| | | | With those kinds of odds, would you join the |
| For almost two decades, on the rolling sand | | | | military these days? |
| dunes of Iraq, among the many strewn and | | | | |
| shattered remnants of destroyed enemy tanks, | | | | To summarize, the U.S. Department of Defense |
| our troops have continually inhaled air | | | | paid for the development and manufacture of |
| contaminated with microscopic radioactive | | | | DU weapons, which through their own research |
| dust particles from the reckless and open use | | | | was known to be deadly to the very troops |
| of depleted uranium munitions. Dr. Doug | | | | using them on the battlefield. Our troops |
| Rokke, a US Army Health Physicist and Nuclear | | | | were knowingly exposed to deadly chemical and |
| Medicine Sciences Officer, whose team was in | | | | biological weapons in the theatre of |
| charge of battlefield decontamination during | | | | operations during Operation Desert Storm. |
| the first Gulf War, states that his team | | | | They are inoculated with drugs that are known |
| received direct memorandums from the | | | | to have serious and deadly side effects, none |
| Department of the Army and other Department | | | | of which have been approved by the F.D.A. |
| of Defense Officials, which plainly verified | | | | They are told by the V.A. that they suffer |
| his own research; depleted uranium munitions | | | | from posttraumatic stress disorder and |
| were a serious health threat due to | | | | prescribed medications that deal solely with |
| contamination. [7] | | | | the symptoms and offer no valid treatments |
| | | | for their illnesses. Their spouses and |
| Because of the Department of Defense's direct | | | | children are stricken by many of the same |
| concern over the health and environmental | | | | debilitating symptoms and health problems, |
| effects of DU, Dr. Rokke discloses that he | | | | yet the Department of Defense continues to |
| was asked to misrepresent his research and | | | | stonewall and deny. |
| falsify an official report so that uranium | | | | |
| munitions could always be used on the | | | | Now that we have a good understanding of all |
| battlefield by U.S. forces. According to his | | | | the facts, what can we do? Whether we scream |
| own research, and that performed by the Army | | | | this from the rooftops for all to hear or |
| Environmental Policy Institute [8], uranium | | | | bury our heads further in the sand is the |
| munitions cannot be cleaned up. In fact, the | | | | test by which all Americans will be measured. |
| United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights | | | | Americans must take leadership roles in |
| ruled that uranium munitions are an illegal | | | | transforming this government into one that |
| weapon because they kill indiscriminately, | | | | holds its leaders accountable for the crimes |
| they cannot be cleaned up, and they | | | | that they have committed against the people |
| contaminate the environment for 4.5 billion | | | | of the United States and the global community |
| years. [9] | | | | at large. How much longer will the citizens |
| | | | of this country tolerate the clear and |
| The intentions of our military leaders, past | | | | present danger of our U.S. service personnel |
| and present, are becoming all too clear for | | | | at the hands of the U.S. military |
| those who take the effort to observe these | | | | establishment? One thing is clear. |
| atrocities with unfiltered eyes and yet Gulf | | | | Officials at the Department of Defense are |
| War exposures do not stop there. On the | | | | guilty of no less than treason and should be |
| battlefield of Iraq our service personnel | | | | prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law |
| were exposed to chemical and biological | | | | to serve as a warning to all future |
| weapons supplied to the Iraqis by the U.S. | | | | generations. These actions will not be |
| military with the full blessing of our | | | | tolerated. |
| Congress. Little known to most Americans, | | | | |
| and almost completely unreported in the | | | | "That whenever any Form of Government becomes |
| mainstream press, is that chemical and | | | | destructive of these ends, it is the Right of |
| biological exposures from the 1992 demolition | | | | the People to alter or to abolish it and to |
| of Khamisiyah and similar massive bunker | | | | institute new Government, laying its |
| sites in Iraq have now been determined to | | | | foundation on such principles and organizing |
| have caused permanent neurological damage in | | | | its powers in such form, as to them shall |
| over 300,000 Gulf War veterans, who are now | | | | seem most likely to effect their Safety and |
| classified as permanently disabled by the VA. | | | | Happiness. |