CHECK OUT THIS BILLBOARD!

[Jcrowley]

Chip Clawson of the Montana Depleted Uranium Education Project stands near the billboard he raised money to have installed for the month, in an attempt to increase public awareness of the dangers depleted uranium has on American veterans.

And the story that goes along with it:

An unmistakeable message?
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON - IR Features Writer - 03/06/07

The words are bright and unmistakeable, sitting high above Montana Avenue on the latest flashy billboard. “Depleted uranium kills our troops,” the message says, depicting an Abrams tank firing its cannon, along with a warning for “ionizing radiation.”

The billboard doesn’t mention the Helena Peace Seekers, a local anti-war group that has called the current conflict “immoral and unjust.”

It does, however, list the group’s new subsidiary, the Montana Depleted Uranium Project, which hopes to use the billboard to raise public awareness on the use of DU, which it says threatens the health of both U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians.

“We have DU munitions being used by the military that are endangering our own troops,” said Chip Clawson, a Vietnam-era veteran who’s funding the billboard. “These radioactive weapons are certain to devastate the future health of many troops and many civilians in the countries where we’ve used them.”

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/03/06/helena_top/a07030607_04.txt

[proud patriot]

1. k and r

[swimmernsecretsea]

2. Oh my.

This man deserves our thanks. He's going to save some lives.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Glad to give the 5th r

Back in 2003, I did some basic research on depleted uranium, and my local bi-partisan peace group ran an ad on it. The Little Rock rag misnamed the Democrat-Gazette ran an article about us, but said the ad was untrue. Glad someone someplace else was able to get out the TRUTH about it.

[Lucky Luciano]

22. "my local bi-partisan peace group "

Is this an oxymoron? What thugs are members of a peace group?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

43. the members of

CPR--Citizens for Political Reform. There were several Republicans in it--ones who were disgusted with the current GOP, and who raised money for ads in favor of Kerry for President when our local Democratic committee told us they weren't going to support ANY of the Democratic candidates.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

24. Glad to give it the 50th R!

This thread deserves all the R's it gets.

K&R!

Edited to add, Thank you, Mr. Clawson, sir.

[autorank]

4. K&R. Right there with you.

[northofdenali]

5. Wow, K&R!!

Mr. Clawson :yourock:

[libodem]

6. It kills our soldiers

and deforms and retards the unborn. That's okay with Bush and Cheney as long as none of those fetuses are aborted. Abortion trumps cancer and birth defects. Depleted Uranium is okay with Republicans and that makes it okay with God? Right?

[Sequoia]

7. Very good!

Marion Fulk, a highly respected Manhattan Project and Livermore atomic scientist, says that depleted uranium "is perfect for killing lots of people."

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=30431

AND

TRACY, Calif.- San Joaquin Valley air officials rescinded their decision to allow the federal government to test its nuclear weapons arsenal in the Altamont Hills after they learned the bombs would have radioactive material.

The San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District initially granted a permit to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to test the 350-pound bombs on Site 300, a 7,000-acre open field owned by the lab off Interstate 580 near Tracy. But air officials changed course when they learned the tests would involve depleted uranium.

"They did not tell us they had radioactive emissions (in the explosives)," agency executive director Seyed Sadredin told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I'm not saying they tried to hide it. They did not think it (the radioactivity) was significant."

http://www.trivalleycares.org/news/articledisplay.asp?artid=435

[Jcrowley]

18. Have you seen this?

WORLD TRADE CENTER AIR STUDIES:
Dr. Thomas Cahill, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of California at Davis, conducted an independent study of the air around Ground Zero at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 disaster. Using very sophisticated monitoring instruments which detect very fine and ultra fine particles, Cahill and his group monitored the smoldering pile at the WTC for 5 months following the disaster from one mile north of the center. They measured concentrations of particles in six size ranges from 2.5 microns to 0.09 microns. They reported the highest concentrations of very fine particles of metals ever reported in the US, and unprecedented numbers of very fine and super fine particles. This air monitoring study of the WTC provided new information about very fine and superfine particles which have rarely been studied. Burning metals and other materials at high temperatures generate very large amounts of very small particles. For this reason depleted uranium which has burned is particularly hazardous.

The EPA has verified that depleted uranium was in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11 and that the crash site was contaminated. Residents of New York City detected radiation on hand held geiger counters at the WTC site. The EPA not only failed to protect emergency response personnel at both sites, but did not report or measure concentrations of very fine particles at any of the 9/11 plane crash locations. These are the most hazardous to health, and many personnel who worked at the crash sites are now very ill.
Dr. Cahill also studied the Kuwaiti oil field fires following the Gulf War.

http://www.peacecourier.com/depleted_uranium.htm

[rebel with a cause]

34. There were also residents who lived close to the site that

will probably, if they are not already, be coming up ill from this contamination. Another one of rudy's billiant moves if you ask me, and of course some of the blame can go to bush and his little dog too.

[Sequoia]

41. Now why would depleted uranium be on that plane?

[windbreeze]

44. I second that question....someone? anyone?.....n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

47. On some civilian jet aircraft depleted uranium was used in counterweights

for control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators etc. I know it was used for a while in the 747 but I thought they had discontinued its use in later jet aircraft including the 757, the type that crashed into the pentagon.

"DU counterweights have been used primarily in wide-body aircraft on rudders, outboard ailerons (wing assembly), and outboard elevators (tail assembly). Counterweights come in a variety of weights and shapes, and numerous weights and shapes are used in some aircraft. The DU counterweight can range in weight from 0.23 to 77 kg."
"Some aircraft used for military and cargo also use DU counterweights; these include the Lockheed C-130 and C-141, Jetstar, and S-3A. The Boeing Company produced helicopters utilizing DU as a rotor tip weight prior to 1979. These weights consisted of small 0.22-kg triangular weights. One to three weights were installed per blade. Virtually all of the Boeing helicopters manufactured prior to 1979 have had their blades replaced with composite blades that do not contain DU weights." NUREG-1717

SNIP

"In many cases, tungsten alloy counterweights have replaced DU counterweights in aircraft. Since 1981, The Boeing Company has provided customers with tungsten replacement counterweights, and tungsten counterweights have been installed in new Boeing 747 aircraft. Tungsten equivalents have been sent as spares since 1981 (Gallacher, 1994). In 1988, McDonnell-Douglas discontinued using DU counterweights and began using tungsten. Tungsten counterweights are used on the MD–11, MD–80, and MD–90 (Ford, 1994).
It is unknown how many DU counterweights are currently installed in aircraft. It is estimated that approximately 15,000 weights may be associated with the Boeing 747 fleet (based on 550, Boeing 747 aircraft produced between 1968 and 1981 and spare parts) (Gallagher, 1994). However, the number of aircraft that contain DU counterweights is decreasing. Rather than refurbishing the DU (during maintenance operations), tungsten counterweights are used as a replacement." NUREG-1717

http://www.wise-uranium.org/ruxcw.html

[windbreeze]

52. Thank you for answering the query....n/t

[scorpiogirl]

40. Thank you for posting this!

I live in the tri-valley and had no idea about this. Scary!

[windbreeze]

45. Wow...when I saw that picture of Chip Clawson...I thought...damn

he looks like Ernest Borgnine...and then I come down the list and find someone else must have thought the same thing...
wb

[blm]

8. A big K&R...... GREAT EFFORT!!!!!

.

[mnhtnbb]

9. WOW! I can't believe the billboard company accepted the ad!

I had a sentence in a LTTE about a year ago, which was removed, that had to do with DU being used in Iraq. MSM is hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil
on the whole DU issue.

Good for Chip Clawson!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

10. kick.

for the truth.

[bigwillq]

11. Awesome!

:bounce:

[SalmonChantedEvening]

12. K & R

SUPERB!!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Nice!

[stevedeshazer]

14. I am convinced that Western states like Montana will lead Dems back to power

Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, all these states have outsized electoral clout and are trending Democratic. It's enough to make the difference.

That's why Howard Dean should be praised for recognizing this and implementing a fifty-state strategy.

It's working.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

16. you're right.

the 50-state strategy was beyond brilliant. and it sure is working.

[Straight Shooter]

15. Now *that's* what it means to Support The Troops!

Here's to you, Mr. Chip Clawson. :patriot:

[Jax]

17. I love this guy

that is definitely supporting the troops!!!

[neuvocat]

19. Good man.

I think this might be the first anti war billboard to have gone up since the Iraq war started.

[stillcool]

20. K & R..

While veterans presented with level-one or level-two exposure to DU have that exposure documented in their medical records, those who experience a level-three exposure do not.

“I think what this group wants is to have anyone and everyone in theater tested for DU automatically,” Foster said. “That just can’t happen unless they want to pay for it themselves.”

[bagrman]

21. They have made Iraq a nuclear waste land.

When shock and awe started, they used quit a bit of DU munitions. 9 days later outside of London at one of their Nuclear facilities, their warning lights went off. Many, many, families are reporting 10-15 people all with Cancer and some people with 3 different types. This vaporized stuff dosen't just washout of your body either, it goes in and gets stuck. The 2 sites below have a lot of info. The second one is chilling.

Latr
.
.
.
http://www.rense.com/Datapages/dudata.htm
.
http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

[tom_paine]

23. Montana again takes the lead! Now there is a true patriot!

:toast: :patriot:

[Nikki Stone1]

25. YAY!!!!!!!

:kick:

[grannylib]

26. Google image search "depleted uranium" and see what our troops,

and possibly their offspring, are in for. It's already taken an enormous toll on the Iraqi civilian population; the birth defects are horrendous.
And of course, the military knew what it was throwing our troops into, but hey, so what? If it's making somebody somewhere some money, who cares if it's getting our soldiers killed, right?

Goddamn, this war makes me sick.

[Jcrowley]

32. A memo from 1943

Memorandum to:
Brigadier General L. R. Groves
From:
Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey
War Department
United States Engineer Office
Manhattan District
Oak Ridge Tennessee
October 30, 1943
Declassified June 5, 1974




1. Inclosed is a summary of the report written by Drs. James B. Conant, Chairman, A. H. Compton, and H. C. Urey, comprising a Subcommittee of the S-1 Executive Committee on the "Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon." It is recommended that a decision be obtained from competent authority authorizing additional work pertaining to the use of radioactive materials in order that this country may be ready to use such materials or be ready to defend itself against the use of such materials. The following program is recommended:

<snip>

Two factors appear to increase the effectiveness of radioactive dust or smoke as a weapon. These are: (1) It cannot be detected by the senses; (2) It can be distributed in a dust or smoke form so finely powdered that it will permeate a standard gas mask filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging. An off-setting factor in its effectiveness as a weapon is that in a dust or smoke form the material is so finely pulverized that it takes on the characteristic of a quickly dissipating gas and is therefore subject to all the factors (such as wind) working against maintenance of high concentrations for more than a few minutes over a given area.

<snip>

Areas so contaminated by radioactive material would be dangerous until the slow natural decay of the material took place, which would take weeks and even months. On a hard smooth surface some decontamination could be accomplished by flushing with water, but for average terrain no decontaminating methods are known. No effective protective clothing for personnel seems possible of development.

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Groves-Memo-Manhattan30oct43.htm

[Stephanie]

27. My hometown!

I'm very proud! :)

[nam78_two]

28. K&R.nt

[WillyT]

29. K & R !!!

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

30. Great billboard!

[Bushfire]

31. BE THE MEDIA is what it takes, anyhow, anyway...

Glad to see them spread the message.

[OneBlueSky]

33. is anyone in Congress pushing for an investigation into the use of depleted uranium weapons? . . .

and if not, why not? . . .

[reprehensor]

35. Depleted Uranium, an Introduction

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/reprehensor/14

[JohnyCanuck]

36. Doesn't just kill the troops, it does a number on babies and children too

But of course most of the kids are brown and would only grow up to believe the oil underneath the ground where they walked and had their homes was their own and didn't really belong to Dick Cheney and his friends. Hard as it might be to believe, the murderous war criminals among the US political and industrial elites and among the Pentagon brass have no problem condemning infants (Iraqi and American) to suffer the debilitating and painful diseases brought about by despoiling large swaths of the earth with their poisonous depleted uranium

Poison DUST tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn't. Of a veteran's young daughter ... all » whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. Of thousands of young vets who are suffering from the symptoms of uranium poisoning, and the thousands more who are likely to find themselves with these ailments in the years to come. Of a government unwilling to admit there might be a problem here. Filmmaker Sue Harris skillfully weaves the stories of these young veterans with scientific explanations of the nature of "DU" and its dangers, including interviews with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, noted physicist Michio Kaku, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Dr. Helen Caldicott and Major Doug Rokke- the former U.S. Army DU Project head.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4661884201266527175&q=poison+dust

[Gregorian]

48. Iraqis get to live with it for 4 billion years!

And they've been living with it since the Kuwait war with Dimbulb's dad.

Dr. Helen Coldicott. She has spoken for years on this subject. I'm so angry about this aspect of the war. 4 billion years, folks. And that's just the half life.

[JohnyCanuck]

49. Baghdad Hospital Children's Ward

In war and peace children are always amongst the most vulnerable of communities.

Iraq has been no exception.

In this episode, Alive in Baghdad takes you to the children’s ward of Baghdad Hospital, to make visible the plight of some very sick children, stricken with cancer by the presence of Depleted Uranium munitions, left over from the last to (sic) US wars in Iraq.

Despite official claims that so-called "Depleted" Uranium is mostly harmless, evidence continues to mount to the contrary. Rates of cancer and deformities in Iraq’s children have sky-rocketed since 1991.

Here are just a few of their stories.

http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/2006/07/23/node230/

Direct link to the Quicktime .mov file: http://blip.tv/file/get/Aliveinbaghdad-AiB_7BaghdadHospitalChildrensWard689.mov

[Jcrowley]

51. America's Perpetual Nuclear War

America's Perpetual Nuclear War
by Robert Weitzel

The U.S. left behind 375 tons of DU debris in the Gulf War, 800 tons in Afghanistan, and 2,200 tons during the current invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Children are particularly susceptible to DU poisoning and the resulting cancers due to a higher absorption rate in their blood, which is instrumental in building bones and soft tissue. In March 2001, Dr. Aws Albait, a physician practicing in Baghdad from 1990 to 1999, reported a 12-fold increase in leukemia and lymphomas in Iraqi children and a six-fold increase in adults during that decade. In 2004 it was estimated that children under the age of five accounted for 56 percent of all cancer patients in Iraq, compared with 13 percent 15 years ago.

It is not only Iraqi children who are the victims of our perpetual nuclear war, but American children as well. A Veteran’s Administration study of 251 Gulf War veterans in Mississippi found that 67 percent of their children born since the war had birth defects and severe illnesses. In addition, 90,000 veterans suffer from the chronic, debilitating effects of the Gulf War Syndrome, which many researchers believe may be related to exposure to DU fallout.

In 1995, a U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute report stated, “If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological.” Regardless, the Pentagon steadfastly refuses to conduct studies of its effects on both military personnel and civilians exposed to DU fallout. In fact, its policy is to silence those who would sound an alarm.

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0311-21.htm

[keithjx]

37. I saw this on the way to work this morning!

I had to take a different route to work this morning and saw this billboard - I couldn't believe it! I almost ran into the car in front of me. Very Cool! I need to get in touch with these folks.

:thumbsup:
KJ

[Jcrowley]

38. Kicking

[ClayZ]

39. K and R GREAT!

[Richard Steele]

42. Rec # 90 and a kick! Awesome billboard.

[krispos42]

46. K&R

Psssst!

Toxic radioactive heavy metal smashed into dust against armor plating, then breathed in by humans = bad

Kittens = good

[Nicole]

50. K & R

Here's to you Chip Clawson! :toast:

[Dr Fate]

53. Is this one of those "anti-war wackos" the DLC has told me about?

???

[iamthebandfanman]

54. I love it

i just wish he woulda also added the thousands and thousands of iraqi's it also kills and disfigures.