thank you for joining us the. syrian capital damascus its fiercest fighting since the prize against a government began a special envoy kofi annan. seeking a president who can support bloodshed. emigrants in belgium feel insulted by a new starter kit that they say is nothing more than a government force never just coming into the civilized world. get away to rest or a place to decide the world's fate occupy protesters demand transparency and media

coverage as the wealthy and powerful gather for free. except a report on the appalling aftermath of a major u.s. battle in the iraq war a showdown that's still taking its toll on the country's children. i continue my inquest in champagne illinois two hundred kilometers from chicago and home to dog rock. for dog rock the presence of uranium in fluid comes as no surprise this 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.

what i'm doing is blowing up the shootin and burning up but what you see is the direct impact on the iranian missions iranian impact but the uranium the brace of burned and burns and burned and burned and burned for a long time you can see how long it lasts he claims that your ania 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 would four by fours meant it work great this stuff is good ok i'm going to have to understand the purpose is to kill and destroy and uranium weapons are the ultimate because there's a massive fireball a burning uranium for eight months that are moving extraordinarily high velocity and fragments that are not burning their cost massive secondary explosions or massive fires in a thing that will burn. your anian is a mineral used in 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 us army decided to use some of it to manufacture munitions and armor plating. dug roxy's depleted uranium quite simply as a nuclear weapon and yes it is a 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 or 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 us army asked doug to inspect the tons of burnt down iraqi tanks destroyed by depleted uranium missiles this is

measuring the contamination undestroyed as a result in his team were seriously contaminated by inhaling uranium dust today doug is one of the only survivors of that group you know i mean you can look at me i mean what i looked like there was a lot different stuart really healthy and now we're british or nearly sick little me right there and 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 adios amigo us you know we don't want to hear from you no we don't want to 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 rock's recommendations into account he was easy to look at so

you think there is a luge extensively in fallujah totally extensively in fallujah not a question we see everything in all the other people we see every place has been huge we say i mean you could try to clean it up but you can't that's what i tried to do and i could that's why i told them no more. to find out more i tried to reach colonel peter newell he was in command of the battle of fallujah in two thousand and four i never managed to obtain an interview nor would he even answer the phone. or. the issue appears to be embarrassing 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 on 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 of the battle of fallujah he later wrote a book recognized in the u.s. as the reference on american strategy in the rebel city you heard about that you created. all the wife plus for us. but you saved it. it's all nonsense of. a rainy i'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 that all of them arrange die if any

scientists show a linkage between a lingering health problems relative to a military weapon. then that military weapon should not be you 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 gerard denise and their children are to all appearances a typical american family. apart from one detail in two thousand and three matthew served more than six months in iraq a truck driver we transported what you call it blown up equipment things move

around on the truck so we have to tie it down so that's when susceptibility of being exposed to oil 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 bit toria conceived after his return from iraq has a deformed right hand this picture is a reminder of flu just deformed babies. on the front page his story has made headlines all over the world but gerard 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 never get went to a class on how to handle the equipment that we're exposed to when i didn't even know what you deplete your in the last of my holy not even depleted uranium was when i took chemistry he believes he was contaminated 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 was sending back letters at the times from even president bush's office had taken up the issue on the half of president bush thank you for your letter thanking me for the better i bow to remember daughter and he

said the white house is doing your inquiry to the following agent fragment of the bank i think you a service is a social security administration nasa corresponding to be got from. no assistance was provided nor any response to these questions i feel the all human apology because. so to this day. when he said he loves the marine corps i don't understand why but he always says that if something happens to him he must be very good in his marine corps uniform. and that upsets me because i don't understand how faithful he is and how committed 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 and others 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 are short staffed and cruelly lacks medical equipment nothing can be done to save these children so to keep evidence of their births a photographer has been drafted in by the doctors. who said why are you photographing them. but you know why am i photographing them should cost of. their lives for our dead if. 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 died 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 but to prevent the tragedy of fallujah from happening elsewhere some people in europe are starting to take action. in london a stone's throw from the houses of parliament bernie easton camps 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 londoners and tourists. behind him photos of deformed babies are exhibited for all to see these shocking pictures that attempt to boost public awareness. week to expose not just over a kid yes it. is the wickedness of the weaponry they show. me but i've heard it said the armor. didn't really. serve after they may be atomic bomb. namely to oppose her entirely for a different career. 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. show you some of the materials that we campaign with and some others after organizations say we have briefings with show kids are a big inquest complex issue to use every 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 we held a parliamentary briefing that. it's always it's. 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 bomb 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 are quite high levels of contamination of the site so we've been doing quite well to work around not just to try and map whether dave has been used states in bosnia the organization identified twelve highly contaminated zones this information unable the bosnian environment ministry to take steps to limit the damage so this is one called bar of that which was decontaminated in two thousand and seven as you can see from here it's a pretty extensive tests that they have real problems in trying to identify the actual sites where you is. say the round that's being dug out and it starts to break down in the soil yep seven yellow you can see on the outside is uranium oxide

. with three hundred grams in it should have had a traces. collaborating closely with the local authorities douglas was able to work freely in bosnia she's in iraq the situation is much more complicated. the problem that we see is that's. probably three quite different kinds of contamination in iraq you'll have the contamination from the time coming mission and all this a children quite enjoy playing on hold for wreckage and so that was one problem in itself and you have. d.n.a. from craft strikes way you may end up with a lot of contamination in the soil and then you'll have another kind of contamination from the element fighting vehicles which from gunfire a small caliber round and that will definitely be within built up areas so you have three different kinds of contamination all of this needs to be mapped but 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 ngo is attacking the british government also accused of having used depleted 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 reports here by the increased rate of birth defects in fallujah can we have a defeat about this issue so we can hear from the foreign secretary what representations he is making to his u.s. counterparts about 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 depleted uranium and its texts. this allows the u.s. administration to continue using it without fear of reprisals. at 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 are a specialty today francis boyle is locked in a new battle to have the use of depleted uranium recognized as a war crime uranium munitions violate the hague regulations of nineteen zero seven and then do you also violates the geneva protocol of one nine hundred twenty five. so they are clear use of the you is clearly a war crime so if you go away 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 into themselves so that's why it's so hard to bring the united states to heels 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 along with this. 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 boils 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 hellfire missile is a new generation bomb 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 thermal barrick weapons which are specifically designed for very local killing and what they do and if some of these are right in the target of it they just get fried 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 when you get you get a bang and 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 normal and if you're in that area your lungs. you can breathe. williams has not only analyzed the photographs of the bombing in iraq but is also listed the new types of thermobaric bombs developed by the us army once

again they remain very discreet as to the use of uranium we 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 says dense metal warhead dense metal ballast high density payload when you realize what they're trying they're using every word they can except in uranium but they're saying 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 in fallujah piece to see how much smoke and contamination that's a mixture of concrete dust and. if that is using uranium then you've got five hundred kilos of uranium dust in the. northeast brother over a lot of time. and they're celebrating and they don't realize that

they're looking at their future cuts. this is just. it's so sad. to. see you in. my biggest question for flu is probably that it was an experimental area for 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. but the first effects thing we have to question which systems were used. was my parents' home town of fallujah used as a laboratory by the u.s.

army how long will 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. the space in the cemetery reserved for these victims grow steadily.

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