this is the weekly see here you headlines nations are supporting syria's revolution . to thrash out plans to help the opposition build pressure on the assad regime. police supporters of the syrian leader just outside the talks. also in the week's top stories a lot like exchange between barack obama. leads to anti russian rhetoric among america's republican presidential candidates it's a trend that moscow has condemned as a cold war hollywood cliche. and spain adopts its toughest budget cuts in

decades despite a nationwide strike and mass protests that resulted in clashes dozens of arrests. right next to our special report the continuation part two of a scene from some of the worst fighting in the u.s. iraq war this is the battle for fallujah continues here on alt. i continue my inquest in champaign illinois two hundred kilometers from chicago and home to. what help money. for drug rock the presence of uranium in fallujah comes as no surprise his former high ranking officer served more than thirty five years in the u.s. army in particular during the first gulf war at that time he had a research program into the consequences of a new uranium based weapon after testing on behalf of the pentagon he became its

first victim he now suffers from several cancers and renal problems it is part of the nevada test we did in the what i'm doing is blowing up shooting and burn enough but what you see is the direct impact on the iranian mission zero raney an impact but the iranian to brace up burns and burns and burns and burns and burn for a long time see how long it lasts he claims that your anus has been used in american munitions since one thousand nine hundred one in missiles shells and armor plating for military vehicles. and when i shut up wood for by force man it works great this stuff is good ok i mean have to understand the purpose is to kill and destroy and uranium weapons are the ultimate because there's a massive fireball of brain uranium fragments that are moving extraordinarily high velocity and fragments that are not burning the cross a massive secondary explosion or massive fires or anything that would burn.

them is a mineral used to nuclear power plants part of it isn't rich and used as fuel for the reactors. the rest is radioactive waste known as depleted uranium. as the cost of storage are high the u.s. army decided to use some of it to manufacture munitions and armor plating. dug roxy's the pleated uranium quite simply as a nuclear weapon and yes it is it's solid radioactive waste as chemically toxic it's radioactive radioactive for eternity it's a dirty bomb and yeah it is i always call it nuclear for what it is it's nuclear waste used to kill and destroy us contaminate air war soil and food that remains there to cause harm for eternity this weapon was used for the first time in iraq in one thousand nine hundred one at the time the u.s.

army asked to inspect the tons of burned down iraqi tanks destroyed by depleted uranium missiles this is measuring the contamination undestroyed as a result he dug and his team were seriously contaminated by inhaling or even to dust today doug is one of the only survivors of that group i mean you can look at me i mean what i look like there was a lot different story early healthy and our bodies ashore nearly sick little me right there. you know we were the best of the best all i for many morse not worth it too many people are sick too many people are dead. since this photo was taken twenty one members of his team have died returning from iraq doug submitted an unfavorable report on the use of depleted uranium. once i told the us army that it was dangerous we couldn't clean it up and they couldn't do it they sent me packing . they said how do you know somebody goes. we don't want to hear from you no we

won't talk to you i mean you got your job keep doing things but shut up and go away the u.s. army never took doug rocks recommendations into account do you think you look just so you think you know it's a legit sensibly inclusion totally extensively in fallujah not a question and we see everything in all the other people we see every place has been huge we see i mean you try to clear up what you can that's what i tried to what i could that's right told him no more. to find out more i tried to reach colonel peter newall he was in command of the battle flu june two thousand and four i never managed to obtain an interview nor would he even answer the phone. the issue appears to be embarrassing and the only answer i received is a link to the u.s. army's internet site. this article praises the merits of depleted uranium and

minimizes its dangerousness the only allusion to health consequences is contained in this phrase the department of defense and many other organizations have studied and continue to study the health chemical radiological and environmental effects and exposures of depleted uranium that's all they wrote to the u.s. army the use of depleted uranium is taboo i did manage to speak to one former high ranking official at the department of defense. being west was with the marines the battle of food you know he later wrote a book recognized in the u.s. as the reference of american strategy in the river city you heard about that you created. the wife of rose. but you think. it's all nonsense. the police raney m or something a. bomb is a bomb. it's not like somebody is leaving behind radioactive so that the marines

walk through i mean radioactive fields then all the marines die if any scientists show a linkage between the lingering health problems relative to a military weapon then that military weapon should not be used unless there's an extraordinary reason however if there is a lingering problem the first people to be affected would be the soldiers on the battlefield and i know of no soldiers who are complaining about uranium. yet it's not that hard to find american soldiers contaminated by depleted uranium a few kilometers from new york on the road to nice and their children or to all appearances that's typical american family people get it's apart from one detail

in two thousand and three matthew served more than six months in iraq. the truck driver we transported what you call it blown up the quick main things move around on the truck so we have to tie it down so that's when susceptibility of being exposed or sleeping in that environment with the trucks because you know some of the missions don't take just one day takes more than one day gerard fell ill several months later the early symptoms seem trivial standard headaches problems with his vision but his state quickly worsened the beginnings of a brain tumor renal problems the list is long i have leakage and i'll show you to the extent how much i have leakage. today has to wear diapers but there's worse his daughter victoria has returned from iraq as a deformed right. this picture is a reminder of who just before babies. his story has made headlines all over the

world but it isn't the only one to fall ill eight of his comrades in arms who served in iraq have shown the same symptoms urine tests reveal an abnormal concentration of uranium. i never was told about depleted uranium in the military i never attend class and never show you have a went to a class on how to handle the equipment that were exposed to it i don't even know what you did leader in the last of my holy not even depleted uranium was when i took chemistry he believes he was going to emulate it during his mission in iraq he decided to file a formal complaint against the us army claiming it broke safety regulations by exposing him to radioactive material his wife has gone even further. she wrote every senator and like almost every representative and every one was basically this is just one of them she wrote of sending back letters at the time even president

bush's office had taken up the issue on behalf of president bush thank you for your letter staking me for the letter i booked him on the border and he said the white house is aiming your inquiry to the following agency funding of defense i think you a service is a social security administration that's the correspondence we got from. no assistance was provided or any response to these questions i feel the human a part of the price. so this day. when he stated he loves the marine corps i don't understand why but he always says that if something happens there he must be buried in his marine corps uniform. and that upsets me because i don't understand how faithful he is and how fermented he is and i have to respect his wishes so for me i don't understand how the government can actually. treat

a man that we. understand. this country. the army refuses to recognize its responsibility six months in iraq were enough to shatter the lives of gerard and his family. in fallujah thousands of inhabitants still live in these buildings destroyed by american bombing seven years in a contaminated city. hospital was short staffed and cruelly lax medical equipment nothing can be done to save these children so to keep evidence of their births a photographer has been drafted by the doctors. i. was going to play photographing them. but you know why my photograph i'm sure because. this is the straw database. we try to keep it updated every month

these photos are unbearable most of these babies will only live for a few hours every month twenty or so babies like these are born and then die in this hospital not to mention the countless newborns with serious illnesses. we see most families would rather the children die and. i remember one day the father said to me each time i see my deformed son. i die. a generation sacrificed and how many more for these children it's already too late faced with this human catastrophe the iraqis are powerless to prevent the tragedy of pollution from happening elsewhere some people in europe are starting to take action.

in london a stone's throw from the houses of parliament easton camped out on this pavement every day. he has been campaigning against the war in iraq since two thousand and five. his spot at the foot of big ben is well chosen to attract both wonders and tourists. behind him photos of deformed babies are exhibited for all to see these shocking pictures that attempt to boost public awareness. we spoke just to make it is a. historical look. it's. the truth it's the i. don't think so this. may be a cold. thing. in trifle a different. the slogan and the slew of iraqi baby photos haven't managed to

rally great support but bernie easton isn't alone in his fight others are campaigning on a different scale an ngo network present in around thirty countries is also campaigning for a ban on all depleted uranium weapons its headquarters are in manchester. maybe show you some of the materials that we campaign with friends some of those other organizations so we have a briefing which is very big and quite complex issue to use or we try and pull together all the necessary information into an easily digestible format this was a briefing which we produced for members of parliament in the u.k. a few years ago say this is the national campaign and we held parliamentary briefing that. it's always a challenge to try and get the politicians up to date on the issue. douglas is all

too aware of the consequences of uranium based weapons he has studied the subject since the balkan war in one thousand nine hundred four in that time he and his team have devised a method for identifying and decontaminating bombs zones his first battlefield was in bosnia where the americans were already using depleted uranium weapons this is a map of a place in bosnia which was a site where to you weapons were used in one thousand nine hundred four ninety ninety five there were quite high levels of contamination of the site so we've been doing quite a lot of work around not just to try and map where the t.v. has been used in bosnia the organisation identified twelve highly contaminated zones this information unable the bosnian environment ministry to take steps to limit the damage so this is one called core of our church was decontaminated in two thousand and seven as you can see from here it's a pretty extensive task that they have real problems in trying to identify the actual sites where the. let's say the round that's being dug up and it starts to

break down in the soil yep so the yellow you see on the outside is uranium oxide. with about three hundred grams in it should have penetrated collaborating closely with the local authorities so it was able to work freely in bosnia in iraq the situation is much more complicated. the problem that we see is that there are probably three quite different kinds of contamination in iraq you'll have the contamination from the tank coming mission the children quite enjoy playing on all four wreckage and so that was one problem in itself and you have. d.n.a. from extra strikes where you may end up with a lot of contamination in the soil and then you have another kind of contamination from the moment fighting vehicles which fuckin fire this soul calibur around and i will definitely be within built up areas so you have three different kinds of contamination or this needs to be mapped and that at the moment the u.s. hasn't released data on where it's fired any of these weapons and this is

a huge issue so. to obtain this information militants have demonstrated outside the american embassy in london but the u.s. army still refuses to provide it in the meantime the n.g.o.s attacking the british government also accused of having used the pleated uranium weapons in iraq. recently these accusations have even been taken up by a british member of parliament during a session the leader nice may have seen today's distressing of course here by the increased rate of birth defects in philip cameron had a defeat about this issue so we can hear from the foreign secretary what representations he is making to his u.s. counterpart but this appalling legacy of the iraq war. in two thousand and ten the british ministry of defense finally admitted the use of depleted uranium in iraq and supplied the united nations with information on the zones targeted the u.s. allies beginning to voice its doubts on this weapon. only

belgium ireland kosta rica and new zealand have formally banned uranium in their arms but today no international convention even mentions the pleated uranium and its texts. this allows the u.s. administration to continue using it without fear of reprisals. if the illinois law faculty francis boyle claims that the usa can be hauled before a tribunal this lawyer and harvard graduate has an international reputation agent orange in vietnam gulf war syndrome or trials or specialty today francis boyle is locked in a new battle to have the use of depleted uranium recognized as a war crime ukrainian munitions violate the hague regulations of one thousand eight hundred seven and then do you also violates the geneva protocol one hundred twenty five. so they are clear the use of the u.

is clearly a war crime is it illegal the way easy to use it shouldn't be but why does the united states use. landmines why you know we're trying to stop it the problem is how. you know how do you bring the rule of law to bear on the united states government it's very difficult to do and especially on the pentagon there are you know there are a lot of threw themselves so that's why it's so hard to bring the united states to heel or he sees isolation on the international stage as being the only way forward i think if we can get all the parties to the geneva protocol to send in that letter to the french government now apparently even the british are willing to go although with us. and the u.s. then is the only outlier on d. you just maybe they'll say ok let's let's stop using the. france's

boyles cause seems a desperate one the united states continue to make use of uranium in developing their military arsenal. in two thousand and three one year before the battle of fallujah donald rumsfeld then defense secretary made a reference before the u.s. congress to the use of a new weapon the hellfire missile. the new missile can take out the first floor of a building without damaging the floors above and is capable of reaching around corners striking enemy forces that hiding or bunkers this declaration went largely unnoticed but it heralded the development of a new missile that would be tested during the early days of the war in iraq. some experts did react to rumsfeld declaration one of them was arms researcher di williams. this scientist is a member of the un institute for disarmament research. he claims the hell fire

missile is a new generation but it was used several times during the battle of fallujah the experts call it a thermobaric weapons. they were using small tactical weapons that they wanted these new thermobaric weapons which are specifically designed for very local killing and what they do now is some of these are right in the target of it they just get right to the it is so high temperature it just burns everything. but also if they are within. maybe fifty meters it will also kill them because you get you get a bang and it sucks all of the air out and so you get a pressure wave which goes high pressure very low pressure and the air pressure goes down maybe ten percent. and if you're in that area your lungs. you can't

breathe. williams has not only analyzed the photographs of the bombing in iraq but it's also listed the new types of thermobaric bombs developed by the u.s. army once again they remain very discreet as to the use of uranium you have nine different the weapon systems going from one hundred kilos up to two thousand and if you look in the in the report all they say is dense metal but it says dense metal warhead that's michael ballast high density payload when you realize what they're trying they're using every word they can except in uranium the best thing this is a secret heavy metal but they never say what. according to die williams these thermobaric bombs were showered on the rebels who had taken refuge in houses and flew to these people see how much smoke i'm a nation that's a mixture of concrete dust and. if that is using the rain in then you've got five hundred kilos of your own just to. discredit over part of.

and they're celebrating and they don't realize that their looking at their own future cancer i'm this is just. it's so sad. no longer see you in. the my biggest question for fallujah is probably that it was an experimental area for a new film about explosives probably rainy and possibly other new. chemicals which we haven't even thought of yet. and so this is where looking at. the first effects we have to question which systems were used.

was my parents' hometown of fluids are used as a laboratory by the u.s. army how long the iraqis have to suffer the consequences of the war. the bush administration boasted of waging a clean war but it continues to sacrifice generations of children both in iraq and the united states. in fallujah two to three deformed babies are born every day most live but a few hours. a space in the cemetery reserved for these victims grow steadily.

there hasn't been anything good on t.v. he. used to get the maximum ridicule in fact. before the source material is what helps keep journalism honest we. we want to try to say. something out.

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you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture .