On 7/3/03 18:23, in article be2dto0187r@enews1.newsguy.com, "Joe S."
<joe@schlatter.org> wrote:

> So what do you expect when you invade a sovereign nation, overthrow their
> government -- hated and feared though it may be -- trash their electrical
> power system, their phone system, and their water system -- try to impose on
> them rule by a gang of clowns who ran away 20 years ago. What would you do?
> You would do exactly as the Iraqis are doing.
>
> What's so hard about that?

I don't know... But somehow the Repugnants have a hard time understanding
that the Iraqis love their sovereignty as much as we do... We don't have a
monopoly over that feeling of freedom...

No, I will not admit that I feel safer and more secure now that Saddam
Hussein is gone.

You see, I never felt unsafe or insecure to begin with.

I doubt that we are any more secure, or any more insecure, now than we were
before 9-11.

You fell for the "we are under attack" crap.

A few buildings being destroyed, a little anthrax in the heating system, a
crop duster spraying smallpox -- all of these could happen simultaneously
and the US will go right along with hardly a blip. What real difference did
9-11 make, except in the lives of people right there at ground zero?

The threats to our security come from job loss, environmental degradation,
loss of individual freedoms, concentration of wealth in the hands of a few,
concentration of the means of production in the hands of a few major
corporations -- these are the trends that scare me, not some pissant
dictator who has grandiose dreams of ruling the world.

Get real.
--

----
Joe S.

"Richard Cranium" <dufus@bunghole.net> wrote in message
news:3f04c881.39918219@nntp.ix.netcom.com...
> With all the bullshit about whether sufficient evidence of WMD
> (sufficient to who?) exists at this time, will you at least admit that
> you feel a bit better and more secure after the Iraq regime change.
> Perhaps you'd feel better if a WMD "event" actually took place. THEN
> you'd possibly have the level of hard evidence you want . . . but your
> mom and sister would be dead. I'd much rather see a foreign threat
> neutralized and a few hundred ragheads squirming at Guantanamo. You
> can keep bitching . . . . while you enjoy the increased security.
>
> Maybe you'd like to become a human shield????? **** that challenge
> the bulldozer crap; go to Israel and begin to ride the buses daily
> with your family. Frequent the markets and nightspots. Have a nice
> time.
>
>
> On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:23:36 -0400, "Joe S." <joe@schlatter.org> wrote:
>
> <<<<<Snip>>>>>

"NBT" <spam@me.not> wrote in message news:BB2ADBF7.69D5%spam@me.not...
> On 7/3/03 22:27, in article be2s7b02bv@enews3.newsguy.com, "Joe S."
> <joe@schlatter.org> wrote:
>
> > No, I will not admit that I feel safer and more secure now that Saddam
> > Hussein is gone.
> >
> > You see, I never felt unsafe or insecure to begin with.
> >
> > I doubt that we are any more secure, or any more insecure, now than we
were
> > before 9-11.
> >
> > You fell for the "we are under attack" crap.
> >
> > A few buildings being destroyed, a little anthrax in the heating system,
a
> > crop duster spraying smallpox -- all of these could happen
simultaneously
> > and the US will go right along with hardly a blip. What real difference
did
> > 9-11 make, except in the lives of people right there at ground zero?
> >
> > The threats to our security come from job loss, environmental
degradation,
> > loss of individual freedoms, concentration of wealth in the hands of a
few,
> > concentration of the means of production in the hands of a few major
> > corporations -- these are the trends that scare me, not some pissant
> > dictator who has grandiose dreams of ruling the world.
> >
> > Get real.
>
>
> If anything... I feel less safe now that we have pissed off most of the
> world...



Standard Democrat Party response to the schoolyard bully - don't stand up to
him, lest you piss him off and "make him" become even meaner and more cruel
to you than he already is.

Which is why the American People are now abandoning the Democrat Party in
droves.....

>
> "DGVREIMAN" <dggrant@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
>
news:r62Na.35134$0v4.2555542@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > WE CEASE - THEY FIRE
> >
> > In the middle east, we are witnessing a typical "hunda" or
> > politically orchestrated "cease-fire" in which the good guys
> > cease, and the bad guys fire.
> >
> > The Israelis have complied with the American proposed Road
Map
> > provisions almost to the letter. They have started to
dismantle
> > settlements, withdraw forces, already released dozens of
> > murdering terrorist goons, yet the radical Muslims have
responded
> > in the same manner they always have responded before; They
lie
> > about ceasing attacks, but in truth they just spin-off some
newly
> > named goon organization that continues to murder Jews and
> > Americans just like they did before.
> >
> > What good is a "cease-fire" when Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the
PLO
> > and all of its factions agree publicly to stop murdering, but
> > then secretly form yet additional terrorist organizations
that
> > will simply pick up where they left off?
> >
> > So far, the attacks on Israel have *increased* not decreased
like
> > the Palestinians promised.
> >
> > Is there any doubt in anyone's mind what the radical Muslims
are
> > doing? Is there any doubt left in any rational mind that
still
> > believes the Palestinians are somehow being oppressed? Is
there
> > any doubt left in anyone's mind the Palestinians really do
not
> > want peace, and they just want to murder Jews and receive
three
> > Billion dollars in American aid while doing so?
> >
> > The three Billion American dollars to the Palestinians are a
> > great carrot for the Palestinians, but that carrot cannot be
> > provided as long as radical terrorist organizations, by *any
> > name* exists or operate in the Palestinian areas. If the
radical
> > terrorist organizations remain operational, the radical goons
> > will just use the money we provide them to purchase more
bombs
> > and weapons that will be used to murder even more Jews and
> > Americans than before.
> >
> > I said before this is the last chance for the Palestinians to
> > prove to the world they are not the mad dogs they appear to
be.
> > IF they really want peace, the olive branch has been extended
to
> > them by President Bush and PM Sharon. Now is the time to stop
> > trying to bite the hand that is offering to stop the misery
of
> > the Palestinian people, and just this once, accept and hold
> > dearly that offer of peace.
> >
> > If the Palestinians, through their typical duplicitous
harangue
> > and deceit, continue to attack Israel, they won't like what
> > America is holding in its other hand. This is the
Palestinian's
> > last chance for an honorable peace, yet the radical Muslim
goons
> > are busy flitting that chance away at the expense of the
ordinary
> > Palestinian people. I feel sorry for the Palestinian people
and
> > pity them for having such brutal, maniacal and greedy
leaders.
> >
> > As long as the radical Muslim terrorist organizations exist,
> > there will be no peace in the middle east. And as long as the
> > present regime in Iran exists, the radical Muslim terrorist
> > organizations will receive money, training, arms, explosives
and
> > will continue to murder Jews and Americans.
> >
> > I give the Road Map two more months at best . . . and then
> > America and Israel will be forced to take off the kid gloves.
> >
> > Doug Grant (Tm)
> >
> >

"Joe S." <joe@schlatter.org> wrote in message
news:be2dto0187r@enews1.newsguy.com...
> So what do you expect when you invade a sovereign nation,
overthrow their
> government -- hated and feared though it may be -- trash their
electrical
> power system, their phone system, and their water system -- try
to impose on
> them rule by a gang of clowns who ran away 20 years ago. What
would you do?
> You would do exactly as the Iraqis are doing.
>
> What's so hard about that?

Doug Says: You are misinformed, the "Iraqis" are 95% in favor of
the coalition troops, the radical Muslim interlopers and
insurgents represent the guerrillas and murder for hire
criminals. Further, Saddam openly and publicly declared war on
the USA, Britain and Israel on December 27, 2000 just ten months
prior to the 911 massacres, and Saddam provided material support
to Al Qaeda in respect to those 911 massacres. The USA also
approved the removal of Saddam in 1998, long before President
Bush came to power. We had every right to depose Saddam, legal,
international and certainly ethical.

My point was that Hamas and the other radical Muslim goons were
connected to Saddam, and it is radical Islam that is doing all of
the murdering, not the ordinary Middle Eastern
people...especially not the Iraqis.

There is a small chance you are referring to the Palestinians,
but we all know they were the ones sending over the murder
bombers to target innocent Israelis, not the other way around.
Israel has a right to defend itself, and certainly has the right
to bring murdering criminals to justice along with all those that
were accessories to murder.

Doug Grant (Tm)


>
> --
>
> ----
> Joe S.
>
>

WE CEASE - THEY FIRE



In the middle east, we are witnessing a typical "hunda" or
politically orchestrated "cease-fire" in which the good guys
cease, and the bad guys fire.

The Israelis have complied with the American proposed Road Map
provisions almost to the letter. They have started to dismantle
settlements, withdraw forces, already released dozens of
murdering terrorist goons, yet the radical Muslims have responded
in the same manner they always have responded before; They lie
about ceasing attacks, but in truth they just spin-off some newly
named goon organization that continues to murder Jews and
Americans just like they did before.

What good is a "cease-fire" when Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO
and all of its factions agree publicly to stop murdering, but
then secretly form yet additional terrorist organizations that
will simply pick up where they left off?

So far, the attacks on Israel have *increased* not decreased like
the Palestinians promised.

Is there any doubt in anyone's mind what the radical Muslims are
doing? Is there any doubt left in any rational mind that still
believes the Palestinians are somehow being oppressed? Is there
any doubt left in anyone's mind the Palestinians really do not
want peace, and they just want to murder Jews and receive three
Billion dollars in American aid while doing so?

The three Billion American dollars to the Palestinians are a
great carrot for the Palestinians, but that carrot cannot be
provided as long as radical terrorist organizations, by *any
name* exists or operate in the Palestinian areas. If the radical
terrorist organizations still are operational, the radical goons
will just use the money we provide them to purchase more bombs
and weapons that will be used to murder more Jews and Americans.

I said before this is the last chance for the Palestinians to
prove to the world they are not the mad dogs they appear to be.
IF they really want peace, the olive branch has been extended to
them by President Bush and PM Sharon. Now is the time to stop
trying to bite the hand that is offering to stop the misery of
the Palestinian people, and just this once, accept and hold
dearly that offer of peace.

If the Palestinians, through their typical duplicitous harangue
and deceit, continue to attack Israel, they won't like what
America is holding in its other hand. This is the Palestinian's
last chance for an honorable peace, yet the radical Muslim goons
are busy flitting that chance away at the expense of the ordinary
Palestinian people. I feel sorry for the Palestinian people and
pity them for having such brutal, maniacal and greedy leaders.

As long as the radical Muslim terrorist organizations exist,
there will be no peace in the middle east. And as long as the
present regime in Iran exists, the radical Muslim terrorist
organizations will receive money, training, arms, explosives and
will continue to murder Jews and Americans.

I give the Road Map two more months at best . . . and then
America and Israel will be forced to take off the kid gloves.

Doug Grant (Tm)

"Richard Cranium" <dufus@bunghole.net> wrote in message
news:3f04c881.39918219@nntp.ix.netcom.com...
> With all the bullshit about whether sufficient evidence of WMD
> (sufficient to who?) exists at this time, will you at least
admit that
> you feel a bit better and more secure after the Iraq regime
change.
> Perhaps you'd feel better if a WMD "event" actually took place.
THEN
> you'd possibly have the level of hard evidence you want . . .
but your
> mom and sister would be dead. I'd much rather see a foreign
threat
> neutralized and a few hundred ragheads squirming at Guantanamo.
You
> can keep bitching . . . . while you enjoy the increased
security.
>
> Maybe you'd like to become a human shield????? **** that
challenge
> the bulldozer crap; go to Israel and begin to ride the buses
daily
> with your family. Frequent the markets and nightspots. Have a
nice
> time.
>
>
> On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:23:36 -0400, "Joe S." <joe@schlatter.org>
wrote:
>
> <<<<<Snip>>>>>

Doug Says: It is clear Richard, that those that still claim
we have not yet found WMD in Iraq are delusional. They just
cannot stand the fact that everything Secretary Powell said to
the UN, every reason he gave to invade Iraq, have been proved
true. That makes the TP's (Pro-Terrorist Posters) very unhappy.
I for one am enjoying all their squirming, dancing, lying and
whining about this issue. It is just going to get worse for them
as we discover more and more information as to the true
disposition of Saddam's WMD. As of this date we have only
searched about 30% of all suspected WMD sites. Wait until this
issue is reported on by President Bush in about six months, red
faces will be abounding in the pro-terrorist ranks.

Doug Grant (Tm)

>
> "Richard Cranium" <dufus@bunghole.net> wrote in message
> news:3f04c881.39918219@nntp.ix.netcom.com...
> > With all the bullshit about whether sufficient evidence of
WMD
> > (sufficient to who?) exists at this time, will you at least
admit that
> > you feel a bit better and more secure after the Iraq regime
change.
> > Perhaps you'd feel better if a WMD "event" actually took
place. THEN
> > you'd possibly have the level of hard evidence you want . . .
but your
> > mom and sister would be dead. I'd much rather see a foreign
threat
> > neutralized and a few hundred ragheads squirming at
Guantanamo. You
> > can keep bitching . . . . while you enjoy the increased
security.
> >
> > Maybe you'd like to become a human shield????? **** that
challenge
> > the bulldozer crap; go to Israel and begin to ride the buses
daily
> > with your family. Frequent the markets and nightspots. Have
a nice
> > time.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:23:36 -0400, "Joe S."
<joe@schlatter.org> wrote:
> >
> > <<<<<Snip>>>>>
>
>

"Joe S." <joe@schlatter.org> wrote in message
news:be2s7b02bv@enews3.newsguy.com...
> No, I will not admit that I feel safer and more secure now that
Saddam
> Hussein is gone.
>
> You see, I never felt unsafe or insecure to begin with.
>
> I doubt that we are any more secure, or any more insecure, now
than we were
> before 9-11.
>
> You fell for the "we are under attack" crap.
>
> A few buildings being destroyed, a little anthrax in the
heating system, a
> crop duster spraying smallpox -- all of these could happen
simultaneously
> and the US will go right along with hardly a blip. What real
difference did
> 9-11 make, except in the lives of people right there at ground
zero?
>
> The threats to our security come from job loss, environmental
degradation,
> loss of individual freedoms, concentration of wealth in the
hands of a few,
> concentration of the means of production in the hands of a few
major
> corporations -- these are the trends that scare me, not some
pissant
> dictator who has grandiose dreams of ruling the world.
>
> Get real.
> --
>
> ----
> Joe S.

Doug Says: All this top posting is making me think one guy is
using several aliases. Your claim that nothing in America
changed due to the 911 massacres, except for those that were
located at ground zero, is so inane I will not bother to comment.

However, your echoing of the "communist manifesto" above does
require the observations that (1) we have not lost any rights (2)
our Government does more to break up large corporations than
create them (3) our production is higher than ever before in
honest economical terms (no "irrational exuberance" false
economic bubbles like the Clinton's created).

Doug Grant (Tm)

Doug Grant (Tm)

I think that Grant's post, included below for reference, again shows the
paranoia that possesses so many of today's Republican propagandists.

Grant now sees "communist manifesto" echoes in simple critical matters and,
examing top posting, also sees a conspiratorialism whereby he faces one
critic hiding behind "several aliases."

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 18:18:04 GMT, "DGVREIMAN" <dggrant@worldnet.att.net>
<wxjNa.35862$3o3.2621822@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>
>>
>> "Richard Cranium" <dufus@bunghole.net> wrote in message
>> news:3f04c881.39918219@nntp.ix.netcom.com...
>> > With all the bullshit about whether sufficient evidence of
>WMD
>> > (sufficient to who?) exists at this time, will you at least
>admit that
>> > you feel a bit better and more secure after the Iraq regime
>change.
>> > Perhaps you'd feel better if a WMD "event" actually took
>place. THEN
>> > you'd possibly have the level of hard evidence you want . . .
>but your
>> > mom and sister would be dead. I'd much rather see a foreign
>threat
>> > neutralized and a few hundred ragheads squirming at
>Guantanamo. You
>> > can keep bitching . . . . while you enjoy the increased
>security.
>> >
>> > Maybe you'd like to become a human shield????? **** that
>challenge
>> > the bulldozer crap; go to Israel and begin to ride the buses
>daily
>> > with your family. Frequent the markets and nightspots. Have
>a nice
>> > time.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:23:36 -0400, "Joe S."
><joe@schlatter.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > <<<<<Snip>>>>>
>>
>>
>
>"Joe S." <joe@schlatter.org> wrote in message
>news:be2s7b02bv@enews3.newsguy.com...
>> No, I will not admit that I feel safer and more secure now that
>Saddam
>> Hussein is gone.
>>
>> You see, I never felt unsafe or insecure to begin with.
>>
>> I doubt that we are any more secure, or any more insecure, now
>than we were
>> before 9-11.
>>
>> You fell for the "we are under attack" crap.
>>
>> A few buildings being destroyed, a little anthrax in the
>heating system, a
>> crop duster spraying smallpox -- all of these could happen
>simultaneously
>> and the US will go right along with hardly a blip. What real
>difference did
>> 9-11 make, except in the lives of people right there at ground
>zero?
>>
>> The threats to our security come from job loss, environmental
>degradation,
>> loss of individual freedoms, concentration of wealth in the
>hands of a few,
>> concentration of the means of production in the hands of a few
>major
>> corporations -- these are the trends that scare me, not some
>pissant
>> dictator who has grandiose dreams of ruling the world.
>>
>> Get real.
>> --
>>
>> ----
>> Joe S.
>
>Doug Says: All this top posting is making me think one guy is
>using several aliases. Your claim that nothing in America
>changed due to the 911 massacres, except for those that were
>located at ground zero, is so inane I will not bother to comment.
>
>However, your echoing of the "communist manifesto" above does
>require the observations that (1) we have not lost any rights (2)
>our Government does more to break up large corporations than
>create them (3) our production is higher than ever before in
>honest economical terms (no "irrational exuberance" false
>economic bubbles like the Clinton's created).
>
>Doug Grant (Tm)
>
>Doug Grant (Tm)
>

Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq: The Monitor finds high levels of
radiation left by US armor-piercing shells
Scott Peterson (The Christian Science Monitor)
15 May 03

BAGHDAD -– At a roadside produce stand on the outskirts of Baghdad,
business is brisk for Latifa Khalaf Hamid. Iraqi drivers pull up and snap
up fresh bunches of parsley, mint leaves, dill, and onion stalks.

But Ms. Hamid's stand is just four paces away from a burnt-out Iraqi tank,
destroyed by - and contaminated with - controversial American
depleted-uranium (DU) bullets. Local children play "throughout the day" on
the tank, Hamid says, and on another one across the road.

No one has warned the vendor in the faded, threadbare black gown to keep
the toxic and radioactive dust off her produce. The children haven't been
told not to play with the radioactive debris. They gather around as a
Geiger counter carried by a visiting reporter starts singing when it nears
a DU bullet fragment no bigger than a pencil eraser. It registers nearly
1,000 times normal background radiation levels on the digital readout.

The Monitor visited four sites in the city - including two randomly chosen
destroyed Iraqi armored vehicles, a clutch of burned American ammunition
trucks, and the downtown planning ministry - and found significant levels
of radioactive contamination from the US battle for Baghdad.

In the first partial Pentagon disclosure of the amount of DU used in Iraq,
a US Central Command spokesman told the Monitor that A-10 Warthog aircraft
- the same planes that shot at the Iraqi planning ministry - fired 300,000
bullets. The normal combat mix for these 30-mm rounds is five DU bullets to
1 - a mix that would have left about 75 tons of DU in Iraq.

The Monitor saw only one site where US troops had put up handwritten
warnings in Arabic for Iraqis to stay away. There, a 3-foot-long DU dart
from a 120 mm tank shell, was found producing radiation at more than 1,300
times background levels. It made the instrument's staccato bursts turn into
a steady whine.

"If you have pieces or even whole [DU] penetrators around, this is not an
acute health hazard, but it is for sure above radiation protection dose
levels," says Werner Burkart, the German deputy director general for
Nuclear Sciences and Applications at the UN's International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. "The important thing in any battlefield -
especially in populated urban areas - is somebody has to clean up these
sites."

Minimizing the risk

Fresh-from-the-factory DU tank shells are normally handled with gloves, to
minimize the health risk, and shielded with a thin coating. The alpha
particle radiation emitted by DU travels less than an inch and can be
stopped by cloth or even tissue paper. But when the DUmaterial burns
(usually on impact; or as a dust, it can spontaneously ignite) protective
shields disappear, and dangerous radioactive oxides are created that can be
inhaled or ingested.

"[The risk] depends so very much on how you handle it," says Jan Olof
Snihs, of Sweden's Radiation Protection Authority in Stockholm. In most
cases dangers are low, he says, unless children eat toxic and radioactive
soil, or get DU oxides on their hands.

Radioactive particles are a "special risk associated with a war," Mr. Snihs
says. "The authorities should be aware of this, and try to decontaminate
places like this, just to avoid unnecessary risk."

Pentagon officials say that DU is relatively harmless and a necessary part
of modern warfare. They say that pre-Gulf War studies that indicated a risk
of cancer and of causing harm to local populations through permanent
contamination have been superseded by newer reports.

"There is not really any danger, at least that we know about, for the
people of Iraq," said Lt. Col. Michael Sigmon, deputy surgeon for the US
Army's V Corps, told journalists in Baghdad last week. He asserted that
children playing with expended tank shells would have to eat and then
practically suffocate on DU residue to cause harm.

But there is a growing chorus of concern among United Nations and relief
officials, along with some Western scientific experts, who are calling for
sites contaminated with DU be marked off and made safe.

"The soil around the impact sites of [DU] penetrators may be heavily
contaminated, and could be harmful if swallowed by children," says Brian
Spratt, chair of the working group on DU at The Royal Society, Britain's
premier scientific institution.

Heavy metal toys?

Fragments and penetrators should be removed, since "children find them
fascinating objects, and can pocket them," says Professor Spratt. "The
science says there is some danger - not perhaps a huge danger - of these
objects. ... We certainly do not say that these things are safe; we say
that cleanup is important."

The British Ministry of Defense says it will offer screening to soldiers
suspected of DU exposure, and will publish details about locations and
quantities of DU that British troops used in Iraq - a tiny fraction of that
fired by US forces.

The Pentagon has traditionally been tight-lipped about DU: Official figures
on the amount used were not released for years after the 1991 Gulf War and
Bosnia conflicts, and nearly a year after the 1999 Kosovo campaign. No US
official contacted could provide DU use estimates from the latest war in
Iraq.

"The first thing we should ask [the US military] is to remove that
immediately," says Carel de Rooy, head of the UN Children's Fund in
Baghdad, adding that senior UN officials need urgent advice on avoiding
exposure.

The UN Environment Program last month called for field tests. DU "is still
an issue of great concern for the general public," said UNEP chief Klaus
Töpfer. "An early study in Iraq could either lay these fears to rest or
confirm that there are indeed potential risks."

US troops avoid wreckage

During the latest Iraq conflict Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and
A-10 Warthog aircraft, among other military platforms, all fired the DU
bullets from desert war zones to the heart of Baghdad. No other
armor-piercing round is as effective against enemy tanks. While the
Pentagon says there's no risk to Baghdad residents, US soldiers are taking
their own precautions in Iraq, and in some cases have handed out warning
leaflets and put up signs.

"After we shoot something with DU, we're not supposed to go around it, due
to the fact that it could cause cancer," says a sergeant in Baghdad from
New York, assigned to a Bradley, who asked not to be further identified.

"We don't know the effects of what it could do," says the sergeant. "If one
of our vehicles burnt with a DU round inside, or an ammo truck, we wouldn't
go near it, even if it had important documents inside. We play it safe."

Six American vehicles struck with DU "friendly fire" in 1991 were deemed to
be too contaminated to take home, and were buried in Saudi Arabia. Of 16
more brought back to a purpose-built facility in South Carolina, six had to
be buried in a low-level radioactive waste dump.

Television footage of the war last month showed Iraqi armored vehicles
burning as US columns drove by, a common sign of a strike by DU, which
burns through armor on impact, and often ignites the ammunition carried by
the targeted vehicle.

"We were buttoned up when we drove by that - all our hatches were closed,"
the US sergeant says. "If we saw anything on fire, we wouldn't stop
anywhere near it. We would just keep on driving."

That's an option that produce seller Hamid doesn't have.

She says the US broke its promise not to bomb civilians. She has found US
cluster bomblets in her garden; the DU is just another dangerous burden, in
a war about which she remains skeptical.

"We were told it was going to be paradise [when Saddam Hussein was
toppled], and now they are killing our children," she says voicing a common
Iraqi perception about the risk of DU. "The Americans did not bother to
warn us that this is a contaminated area."

There is a warning now at the Doura intersection on the southern outskirts
of Baghdad. In the days before the capital fell, four US supply trucks
clustered near an array of highway off-ramps caught fire, cooking off a
number of DU tank rounds.

American troops wearing facemasks for protection arrived a few days later
and bulldozed the topsoil around the site to limit the contamination.

The troops taped handwritten warning signs in Arabic to the burned
vehicles, which read: "Danger - Get away from this area." These were the
only warnings seen by this reporter among dozens of destroyed Iraqi armored
vehicles littering the city.

"All of them were wearing masks," says Abbas Mohsin, a teenage cousin of a
drink seller 50 yards away, said referring to the US military cleanup crew.
"They told the people there were toxic materials ... and advised my cousin
not to sell Pepsi and soft drinks in this area. They said they were
concerned for our safety."

Despite the troops' bulldozing of contaminated earth away from the burnt
vehicles, black piles of pure DU ash and particles are still present at the
site. The toxic residue, if inhaled or ingested, is considered by
scientists to be the most dangerous form of DU.

One pile of jet-black dust yielded a digital readout of 9,839 radioactive
emissions in one minute, more than 300 times average background levels
registered by the Geiger counter. Another pile of dust reached 11,585
emissions in a minute.

Western journalists who spent a night nearby on April 10, the day after
Baghdad fell, were warned by US soldiers not to cross the road to this
site, because bodies and unexploded ordnance remained, along with DU
contamination. It was here that the Monitor found the "hot" DU tank round.

This burned dart pushed the radiation meter to the far edge of the "red
zone" limit.

A similar DU tank round recovered in Saudi Arabia in 1991, that was found
by a US Army radiological team to be emitting 260 to 270 millirads of
radiation per hour. Their safety memo noted that the "current [US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission] limit for non-radiation workers is 100 millirads per
year."

The normal public dose limit in the US, and recognized around much of the
world, is 100 millirems per year. Nuclear workers have guidelines 20 to 30
times as high as that.

The depleted-uranium bullets are made of low-level radioactive
nuclear-waste material, left over from the making of nuclear fuel and
weapons. It is 1.7 times as dense as lead, and burns its way easily through
armor. But it is controversial because it leaves a trail of contamination
that has half-life of 4.5 billion years - the age of our solar system.