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Archive for August 24th, 2010

You may recall the leveling of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. Four U.S. mercenaries violated security procedures and wandered alone into a dangerous part of the city. They were set upon by a mob and killed, their mutilated bodies hung from a bridge. The American retaliation, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,300 Iraqis.

The U.S. first denied then later admitted using white phosphorus weapons in violation of international law. The U.S. also used ordnance incorporating depleted uranium, a highly radioactive material. Today, the initial toll of 1,300 killed in Operation Phantom Fury appears to be only the beginning of what will surely be years of protracted illnesses and deaths from radioactivity.

Don’t care about the Iraqi civilians who have been consigned to a slow and agonizing death from radioactivity? Then consider that the U.S. military personnel who participated in the operations were exposed as well. We can expect that these veterans will suffer for years and that the government that sent them to war will deny their illness is connected to depleted uranium. That’s standard operating procedure for the war industry based in Washington, D.C.

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.

Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

Read more at the Independent.

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The federal parasites call it an “enhanced patdown.”  We call it a dream job for pervs. Think of airport security as a laboratory where you’re trained to submit to humiliation.

Airline passengers from coast to coast are decrying the Transportation Security Administration’s more aggressive body searches, calling screeners’ new front-of-the-hand, slide-down technique not only invasive but an example of Big Brother run amok.

Rob Webster said he was subjected to a head-to-toe body search that “did not miss an inch” and even included a “probing and pushing” of his genital area when flying home from Las Vegas to Seattle last week.

“If anybody ever groped me like that in real life, I would have punched them in their nose,” the 50-year-old said. “It was extremely invasive. This was a very probing-type touching – not just patting over all your areas, but actually probing and pushing and seeing if I was concealing something in my genital area.”

Webster was subjected to the body search at McCarran-Las Vegas International Airport after he opted not to walk through a full-body scanner. He objects to the scanners because of the revealing X-ray images they produce and concerns about health effects.

“They said they were going to pat me down, it was going to be very invasive, and they were going to touch every part of my body,” Webster said. “And they asked if I had any injuries that might be painful when they were touched.”

Read more at the Boston Herald.

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