Depleted Uranium

The debate about whether Flight 77 or something else hit the Pentagon takes on a new meaning if we consider the possible use of a missile containing depleted uranium. There is quite a lot of debate on the issue, but depleted uranium is probably relatively safe unless it catches fire. It has a tendency to catch fire on impact, and the burning seems to make it more effective as a piercing weapon. Depleted uranium is sometimes used in commercial aircraft (but apparently not in the Boeing 757), but is really put to extensive use in bombs and cruise missiles. When it makes contact with its target and catches fire, the uranium turns into an aerosol, which is likely to be extremely toxic if inhaled. The use of depleted uranium in Serbia, Bosnia and Iraq has probably caused increased rates of cancer and birth defects (needless to say, NATO and the US government dispute this ).

Depleted uranium may even be the culprit behind Gulf War Syndrome. There are campaigns to ban the use of depleted uranium in bombs and missiles. One of the reasons it is so popular is that its use in weapons provides a cheap way to dispose of nuclear waste, killing, as it were, two birds with one stone. Of course, the fact that depleted uranium tends to burn on contact with its target may explain why no debris was found in the Pentagon (and the ability of DU to provide punching power through even the toughest materials may explain how the missile penetrated into the Pentagon as far as it did). The possible presence of depleted uranium aerosol raises an important safety issue, an issue ignored by those who are certain that it was Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon. Were the people who put out the fire, cleaned up the damage, and rebuilt the Pentagon properly protected? Were the people working in the Pentagon near the crash site subjected to dangerous levels of a toxic substance?

• Burning Depleted Uranium: An ETERNAL Medical Disaster
• Depleted Uranium
• "Current Issues - Civilian Use of Depleted Uranium" 21 Feb 2003. WISE Uranium Project Contamination of Persian Gulf War Veterans and Others by Depleted Uranium Radioactive Battlefields Of The 1990s Bibliography: Military Use of Depleted Uranium Related Information Sources - Depleted Uranium
• Depleted Uranium Web Archive, Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.
• The desert glows - with propaganda
• Depleted Uranium weapons in 2001-2002 Last chance to question US Dirty Bombs for Iraq? Uranium weapons 2001-2003: Hazards of Uranium weapons for Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Depleted Uranium or Depleted Conscience
• Depleted Uranium or Depleted Conscience? by Jeff Lindemyer. December 10, 2001.
• DU: Cancer as a Weapon
• Depleted Uranium: How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers & Civilians with DU Weapons Depleted Uranium Education Project , International Action Center
• Pentagon study called fabrication
• he Nation - The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet
• The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet - An investigative report Pentagon Poison: The Great Radioactive Ammo Cover-Up
• Depleted Uranium Watch
• Depleted Uranium
• Depleted Uranium