SIRIUS: The Strategic Issues Research Institute

SIRIUS: The Strategic Issues Research Institute

Benjamin C. Works, Director

703 415-1191; www.siri-us.com;

E-mail: Benworks@AOL.Com

--Speak the Truth and Shame the Devil--

January 7, 2001

Websites and Reports on Depleted Uranium,

"Gulf War Syndrome" (GWS) and "Balkan War Syndrome" (BWS)

Contents:

* Leukemia Information Site:

* GWS Hotlines for Active Duty Personnel and Gulf War Veterans

* Websites and research is grouped in the following classifications:

I. Department of Defense, VA & other Military Websites and Reports:

II. Other US Government Agency Sites and Reports:

III. UN and International Agency Sites and Reports:

IV. NATO and other International Military Sites and Reports:

V. Medical and Press-Media Sites, Reports and Articles

VI. Anti-DU Activist Sites

* * * *

Just before Christmas, 2000, a hysteria about Depleted Uranium (DU) ammunition exposure broke out in Portugal, Italy and elsewhere, a politically charged hysteria that dates back to October. I began to collect the facts and am pleased to report that a private sector website's report on leukemia will satisfy the unbiased reader that there is no relationship between DU and leukemia: http://www.oncologychannel.com/leukemias/.

This inventory-bibliography of major research and criticism about Leukemia, Depleted Uranium, Gulf War Illness and "Balkan War Syndrome" is designed to present as fair an array of the major points of view. NGO and Anti-War/Anti-DU activist sites are included along with US and British government sites representing the military and regulatory agencies.

The website addresses will lead the reader to well more than 1000 pages of research. By judging the qualitative and quantitative merits of all this research and criticism, can the reader conclude that DU is a relatively minor element of the vastly larger question of why so many veterans report debilitating illnesses after service in Operation Desert Storm.

Another element is clear from reviewing this research; many government agencies in the US and UK are as guilty as the Defense Department of bungling the issue of Gulf War Illness. This does not, however, necessarily indicate a cover up. And one finds continued bureaucratic inertia and carelessness: the VA has not updated its GWI "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) since April 1997 and its homepage does not have a direct pathway of links to GWI information. The Defense Department has dropped its "Gulflink" linkage to the GWI program from its home page, making it difficult to find for someone who does not already know the name "Gulflink."

The astute reader will know to look for context. These writings reflect genuine questions from those suffering real medical problems, "boiler-plate" inconclusiveness from scientific researchers, politically motivated and directed criticism from elected leaders and selected subsets of information from those practicing "inductive reasoning" to advance a political agenda by selecting "facts" and presenting them out of context to promote an agenda. Fallacies in Logic used by anti-du activists include the fallacy of vicious abstraction, the fallacy of ambiguity and the fallacy of emotive language. A complete guide to fallacies in logic is available in the archives folder located at

www.siri-us.com.

I wish to thank Bob Petrovic and Mike Beuster for major assistance in assembling this compilation, and thank Stella, Marija and Liljina for its inspiration and direction.

Benjamin Works

* * * *

* Information on Leukemia is at: http://www.oncologychannel.com/leukemias/

* Gulf War Illness Hotlines

Active duty military personnel with questions or concerns about their service in the Persian Gulf region - contact your commanding officer or call the Department of Defense (DoD) Persian Gulf Veterans' Hotline (1-800-796-9699) for an examination.

Persian Gulf veterans with concerns about their health - contact the nearest VA medical center. The telephone number can be found in the local telephone directory under Department of Veterans Affairs in the "U.S. Government" listings. A Persian Gulf Registry examination will be offered. Treatment will be provided to eligible veterans. The VA Persian Gulf Information Helpline can also provide the latest information and assistance. The toll-free telephone number is 1-800-PGW-VETS (1-800-749-8387).

* Websites and Research by Categories:

I. Department of Defense, VA & other Military Websites and Reports:

A. DefenseLink: Official Site for the Department of Defense (DoD):

For General information on DoD and each of the armed services, including website links.

http://www.defenselink.mil/

B. Gulf Link: Department of Defense website for the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses (OSA-GWI), in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). The OSA-GWI coordinates all DoD response to Gulf War Syndrome (GWS):

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/

Bernard Rostker

Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses

brostker@gwillness.osd.mil

1-800-497-6261

Index of Medical Information resources for Gulf War Vets:

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/medical/#cbid

Index of Environmental Exposure Reports:

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/envexp.html

Major Studies:

1. Report On DU in the Gulf War and other possible causes of GWS:

"Environmental Exposure Report: Depleted Uranium in The Gulf (II);" Dec. 13, 2000

Press Release: http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/news/na_du_ii_19dec00.htm

Report http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/

2. On Vaccines and their possible role in GWS:

"Information Paper: Vaccine Use in the Gulf War," Dec.7, 2000

Press Release:http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/news/na_vaccine_19dec00.htm

Report: http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/va/

OSD Anthrax Vaccine Site: http://www.anthrax.osd.mil/

C. Rand Corp.

Rand Corp. is a non-profit research institute dedicated to research in the public interest.

http://www.rand.org/PUBS/

Under contract to the Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses The Rand Corp. reviewed all suspected causes for Gulf War Syndrome and issued reports based on surveys of the scientific-medical literature for each possible cause. The reports are available on the Internet.

The Review of studies of uranium and depleted radioactivity and chemical toxicity

MR-1018/7-OSD "A Review of Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses: Depleted Uranium"

Report Contents & Index: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/index.html

Press Conference Transcript: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr1999/t04191999_t0415gwi.html

Note: The press release embodies a transcription error that is contradicted by the Rand report's text:

Mr. Works spoke with Dr. Ross Anthony of Rand about the error on Dec. 28, 2000 and Anthony responded that the transcript would be corrected.

The Federation of American Scientists website highlights the erroneous transcript without quoting the report's text.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/docs/t04191999_t0415gwi.htm

D. Department of the Army:

Technical Pamphlet:

Handling Procedures for Equipment Contaminated with Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities

Authors: United States Army Publishing Agency

Document Number: Pam 700-48

Build Date: 02/14/00 14:02:14 Build Version: 1.3.0

Book Path: /usr/lpp/internet/server_root/books/p700_48.boo

http://books.usapa.belvoir.army.mil/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/p700_48/CCONTENTS

E. Defense Nuclear Agency

One memo from this agency is located at the CBC news website:

DNA Memo: http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc2.html

F. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

www.va.gov

Gulf War veterans who need assistance in locating their nearest VA Medical Center or who have general
health questions regarding Gulf service may call toll-free...

The VA Gulf War Veterans Information Helpline: 1800 749-8387

VA Gulf War Veterans Information Helpline: 1-800-PGW-VETS

Gulf War Illnesses Site: http://www.va.gov/health/environ/persgulf.htm

Agent Orange Site: http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-03-00/alibi_feat4.html

VA "Gulf War Review" Newsletter Archive: http://www.va.gov/health/environ/PGR-idx.htm

II. Other US Government Agency Sites and Reports:

Depleted Uranium comes under the regulatory view of the Department of Energy and several regulatory agencies. This redundancy, an example of our Constitutional "checks and balances," assures that though any given function, department or agency in the US government is careless, dishonest or incompetent, another agency will assert a regulatory role.

As these are all Executive Branch agencies and departments, the Legislative Branch also exerts its influence and concern through Congressional hearings, Committee work and through use of the General Accounting Office as a watchdog, auditing other agencies' performance and progress.

Each site has a useful search engine to find relevant reports by "key word" selection.

A. The Department of Energy (DOE)

Home Page: http://www.energy.gov/

A Roster of recent DoE reports: http://tis.eh.doe.gov/portal/home.htm

Press Release: "Energy Department Issues Final Paducah Safety and Health Investigation Report"

http://www.ne.doe.gov/home/02-10a-00.html

An Independent Investigation [into Safety] of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant --Phase I

Report: http://tis.eh.doe.gov/oversight/reports/gdps/9910paducah/9910paducah.html

Note: DOE manages The Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

A memo from an officer serving at the Los Alamos lab, " Subject: The Effectiveness of Depleted Uranium Penetrators," has been posted at the CBC News website:

Los Alamos Memo: http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html

B. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Home Page: www.epa.gov

See particularly:

Series: Radioactive Waste Disposal; An Environmental Perspective:

Report: Uranium Mill Tailings

http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radwaste/umt.htm

Report: Nuclear Metals, Inc (NMI) site in Concord, Mass. July 27, 2000

http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfund/sites/npl/nar1605.htm

NB: In 1997, NMI was renamed as Starmet Corp.

For criticism of the EPA, see Steve Milloy's columns at Foxnews/Junk Science:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/junkscience/index.sml

C. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Home Page: www.NRC.gov

http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/RG/

D. The Occupational Health and Safety Agency (OSHA)

Home Page: www.osha.gov

E. United States Congress

1997 Union Calendar No. 228 105th Congress, 1st Session House Report 105-388
GULF WAR VETERANS' ILLNESSES: VA, DOD CONTINUE TO RESIST STRONG EVIDENCE LINKING TOXIC CAUSES TO CHRONIC HEALTH EFFECTS
SECOND REPORT by the COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND OVERSIGHT

Includes testimony from Dr. Asaf Durakovic and others.

http://www.house.gov/reform/reports/gulfweb.htm

F. The General Accounting Office

Home Page: www.gao.gov

In particular, Senator Russell Feingold (Dem-WI) has pressed the GAO into investigating research and -treatment of Gulf War Syndrome

An Archive Search for "depleted uranium" returned the following relevant reports and many others relevant to DU uranium mine tailings, non-proliferation and site cleanup. GAO reports are available in ASCII text or Acrobat PDF format.

[NSIAD-00-70] Gulf War Illnesses: Understanding of Health Effects From Depleted Uranium Evolving but Safety Training Needed

Size: 67602 , Score: 1000 , TEXT , PDF , SUMMARY

[NSIAD-00-32] Gulf War Illnesses: Management Actions Needed to Answer Basic Research Questions

Size: 114938 , Score: 99 , TEXT , PDF , SUMMARY

[NSIAD-99-59] Gulf War Illnesses: Procedural and Reporting Improvements Are Needed in DOD's Investigative Processes

Size: 133678 , Score: 118 , TEXT , PDF , SUMMARY

[NSIAD-97-163] Gulf War Illnesses: Improved Monitoring of Clinical Progress and Reexamination of Research Emphasis Are Needed

Size: 253361 , Score: 153 , TEXT , PDF , SUMMARY

III. UN and International Agency Sites and Reports:

A. UN Secretariat

Home Page: www.un.org

March 20, 2000; NATO Confirms use of DU in Kosovo to UN:

NATO-Kosovo DU Use map: http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/img/dukosom.gif

Press Release: http://www.igc.org/disarm/du.html#UNEP

Operation Desert Storm DU use map: http://www.ngwrc.org/Dulink/DU_map.htm

Disarmament homepage: http://www.un.org/partners/civil_society/m-disarm.htm

NGO Committee on Disarmament: http://www.igc.org/disarm/

NGO Committee -- DU documents: http://www.igc.org/disarm/du.html

B. UN Agencies

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Home Page: http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom/

UN Environmental Project (UNEP) & Balkans Task Force (BTF):

Home Page: http://balkans.unep.ch/fry/fry.html

BTF Report: The Kosovo Conflict: Consequences for the Environment & Human Settlements; May 2000 (In Acrobat .pdf format).

http://www.grid.unep.ch/btf/final/index.html

UNEP-BTF DU Site: http://balkans.unep.ch/du/du.html

Press Release: Jan 5, 2001; UNEP samples from depleted uranium sites in Kosovo now being analysed in five laboratories

http://balkans.unep.ch/press/press010105.html

Preliminary UNEP-BTF Report on DU, October 1999:

http://balkans.unep.ch/_files/du_final_report.pdf

B. International Committee of the Red Cross

Home Page: www.icrc.org

The ICRC reported testing 32 of its Kosovo employees for DU exposure, with negative results, per Reuters: ICRC says tests of Kosovo staff showed no uranium 07:39 01-05-01

IV. NATO and other International Military Sites and Reports:

A. US Central Command (CENTCOM) -- Persian Gulf-South Asia-East Africa region

http://www.centcom.mil/

B. NATO Website:

http://www.nato.int

C. US European Command: (EUCOM)

http://www.eucom.mil

Info on EUCOM, SHAPE and NATO:

http://www.eucom.mil/org/nato/index.htm

D. For criticism of NATO from the Left: The Winston Foundation

http://www.wf.org/nato.htm

E. UK Ministry of Defence site:

http://www.mod.uk/

Medical Assessment Programme

GWI FAQs http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=971

Report: Radiological and chemical hazards of Depleted Uranium

http://www.mod.uk/index.php3?page=990

F. Yugoslav Army Office for DU and Weapons of Mass Destruction:

Colonel Milan Zaric,

Army department for Atomic-Biological-Chemical Defence --Belgrade

G. Other Yugoslav Reports:

A Yugoslavian Scientific report in English from PROCEEDINGS 1997 Supplement I p.p. 557-561
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/du/du.htm

A survey of environmental contamination released during the NATO Air War

http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0101&L=twatch-l&F=P&S=&P=15958

V. Medical and Press-Media Sites, Reports and Articles

A. Medical - Cancer

Oncology is a specialized knowledge and skill with regard to the diagnosis and treatment of cancers and cancer related problems. Although oncology is classified as an Internal Medicine subspecialty, due to the wide variety of clinical problems encountered a knowledge of internal medicine, hematology and other specialties is required.

See: Oncologychannel.com -- Leukemia

Website: http://www.oncologychannel.com

On Leukemia:

Overview Types, frequency, mortality rates: http://www.oncologychannel.com/leukemias/

Causes: http://www.oncologychannel.com/leukemias/causes.shtml

Symptoms: http://www.oncologychannel.com/leukemias/symptoms.shtml

C. Press-Media Sites

1. Dr. (Major) Doug Rokke

Dr. Rokke is a principal dissenting authority on what he viewed as lax military procedures for DU hazards and other contamination, and vaccination in Operation Desert Storm.

Several URLs are included, but the one of particular seriousness is a speech given at the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition 17th Annual Leadership Breakfast, at the U.S. Senate Caucus Room on November 10, 2000. In this speech he widens his insight into other potential GWS causes distinct from DU. http://sftimes.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$61

Rokke statements, interviews, etc:

http://home.att.net/~dstormmom/rokke.htm

http://sftimes.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$61

http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/v2.htm

http://www.secretsofwar.com/experts/rokke2.html

2. BBC- British Broadcasting Corp.

www.bbc.co.uk

For Recent Kosovo-DU/"Balkan War Syndrome" Coverage and website links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1103000/1103303.stm

3. CBC-Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Special Report: Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium

Includes statements from Jerry Wheat, Dr. Doug Rokke and others

http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/index.html

US official memos provided by Dr. Doug Rokke posted at CBC website:

Los Alamos Memo: http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc1.html

DNA Memo: http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/doc2.html

4. Fox News Science --JunkScience.com;

This site, contains weekly articles by Steven Milloy, a a biostatistician, lawyer and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and publisher of Junkscience.com. The reader will find Mr. Milloy is a lively skeptic. The homepage is an "index" containing his latest feature article, plus a menu of his weekly columns.

www.junkscience.com

http://www.foxnews.com/science/junkscience/index.sml

In particular, the following are recommended reading

* Final Countdown at EPA, Friday, December 8, 2000

* The EPA's Secret Science, Friday, August 4, 2000

5. Alibi-- a weekly paper; Albuquerque, New Mexico:
http://www.alibi.com/alibi/current/

Article: Heavy Metal or Death Metal?

Includes statements from Jerry Wheat, Dr. Doug Rokke and others.

"An Army doctor specializing in nuclear medicine, Col. Asaf Durakovic, was in charge of conducting diagnostic tests of 24 DU-contaminated veterans. The records of the tests mysteriously disappeared, and Durakovic was "downsized." "

http://www.alibi.com/alibi/2000-06-29/feat4.html

http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-03-00/alibi_feat4.html

VI. Frequently Cited Anti-DU Activist Sites and Reports

See also at UN:

NGO Committee on Disarmament: http://www.igc.org/disarm/

NGO Committee -- DU documents: http://www.igc.org/disarm/du.html

Abolition 2000;

Santa Barbara, CA

http://www.abolition2000.org/index.html

Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists (BAS):

http://www.thebulletin.org/

http://www.bullatomsci.org/