Afghanistan; Bala Burghab, depleted uranium bombing
di Gianluca Di Feo (12 luglio 2010)
Nella zona dove operano gli alpini italiani, il 2 e il 3 luglio scorsi l'aeronautica americana ha scatenato gli Avenger, che sparano proiettili a uranio impoverito. Silenzio completo sulla vicenda da parte del nostro comando
In the area where the Italian Alpine unit operates, on the 2 and 3 July the US airforce sent the Avengers to fire depleted uranium bombs. Complete silence on the part of our command concerning this.
L'inizio di luglio è stato particolarmente caldo per gli alpini impegnati in Afghanistan. Ancora una volta la battaglia è divampata intorno alla base di Bala Murghab, la fortezza da cui la Nato controlla la frontiera con il Turkmenistan, strategica per il traffico di oppio e i rifornimenti dei talebani.
At the beginning of July it was very hot for the alpine unit in Afghanistan. Once again the battle raged around the base of Bala Murghab, the fortress from which Nato controlls the border with Turkmenistan, a strategic point where opium traffic and taleban supplies pass through.
E ancora una volta gli scontri sono rimasti nel silenzio: nei comunicati dello Stato maggiore Difesa non c'è traccia. Invece i bollettini statunitensi permettono di capire l'intensità dei combattimenti, fornendo un bilancio sintetico dei bombardamenti.
Once again there was no media coverage of the fighting in Italy: it was not reported in the Italian army communique at all. The US on the other hand reported the intensity of the fighting, and the number of bombings that were carried out.
Negli ultimi mesi il Pentagono aveva ridotto al massimo i raid aerei per evitare di colpire la popolazione civile: ci sono intere giornate in cui gli stormi alleati non sganciano nemmeno una bomba. Invece il 2 e il 3 luglio nel distretto affidato al comando italiano c'è stato fuoco a volontà.
Over the last few months the Pentagon has reduced the number of air raids in order to prevent uneccessary civilian deaths. There have been whole days when the US hasn't dropped a single bomb. But on the 2 and 3 July, they dropped a lot of bombs right in the area where the Italian alpine unit is stationed.
Con l'impiego - reso noto per la prima volta - dei proiettili ad uranio impoverito, sparati dai caccia A10 Avenger americani: si tratta delle munizioni al centro di una lunghissima discussione sui danni trasmessi alle truppe, più volte indicati come responsabili delle leucemie e dei tumori dei reduci, senza tuttavia arrivare a una certezza scientifica.
US A10 Avengers have been dropping depleted uranium bombs for some time. It has been known for a long time that these bombs severely damage the health of the troops stationed near to where they fall. There have been several cases where returning soldiers suffered from leukemia and other forms of cancer, although no-one has yet managed to come up with the scientific proof that these were caused by depleted uranium
In base alle comunicazioni dell'Us Air Force Central Comand all'inizio le squadriglie si sono limitate a proteggere le colonne di soldati, passando con i motori a tutta potenza e facendo piovere bengala luminosi per intimidire i talebani.
According to the US Air Force Central Command at the beginning of the squadriglie they limited themselves to dropping luminous flares to intimidate the Taleban.
Un'attività a cui sembra di capire avrebbero partecipato anche i caccia Amx dell'Aeronautica stanziati sulla pista di Herat:
It seems that the Amx of the Aeronautic division from Herat were also involved in this activity.
jet che non possono usare bombe e hanno solo compiti di ricognizione.
These are jets that can't use bombs and are just used for reconnaissance.
Infatti quando sono cominciati i combattimenti sono entrati in scena gli stormi americani.
However when the fighting began American Storms were involved.
All'inizio i terribili A-10 Thunderbolt - che più spesso vengono chiamati Avenger ossia Vendicatori - con un cannone a tiro rapido che spara proiettili a uranio impoverito. I "vendicatori" hanno seminato raffiche devastanti sulle postazioni degli "insorti".
They started off using the terrible A10 thunderbolt - often called Avengers - with rapid firing guns which fire depleted uranium. The Avengers fired devastating rounds of depleted uranium, covering the area with deadly radioactive shells.
Poi sono arrivati i B1 Lancer, i più grandi bombardieri statunitensi, che hanno sganciato "multiple precision guided munitions": una serie di bombe di precisione, con più attacchi contro i rifugi dove si erano appostati i talebani. Il risultato delle incursioni - recita il bollettino dell'Us Air Force - è stato "un successo" e avrebbe messo a tacere la resistenza.
Ma l'indomani la battaglia è ricominciata. Sabato 3 luglio, mentre gli italiani affollavano le spiagge per il weekend di afa, nei monti desertici di Bala Murghab alpini, marines e fanti afghani riprendevano a sparare.
In cielo sono comparsi gli F16 Fighting Falcon americani. La loro presenza all'inizio ha intimidito i talebani, che avevano già subito un giorno di bombardamenti. Poi gli scontri sono aumentati, con contrattacchi dei miliziani. I caccia americani prima hanno fatto fuoco con i cannoni di bordo, scagliando raffiche da venti millimetri. Quindi sono passati alle bombe: anche in questo caso "multiple", sintesi burocratica che in genere indica numerosi ordigni fatti cadere sugli appostamenti segnalati dalle truppe a terra. Anche in questo caso, i raid sono stati "un successo". E a Bala Murghab - almeno stando ai comunicati Usa - è tornata la calma nella "missione di pace" italiana.
Showing posts with label depleted uranium bombs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label depleted uranium bombs. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Italian Troops exposed to depleted uranium
It looks as if Italian troops are being sent to pick up the pieces of depleted uranium bombs dropped by the US and UK in various parts of the world. Are Italians, once again, being treated as expendible third world soldiers?
“We handle depleted uranium bombs with bare hands”. This is what Italian soldiers said in 1993.
A military document demonstrates that radioactive bombs are kept in Italian bases with little attention to health and safety.
This is a story about silence. Silence about the fact that Italian soldiers pick up the depleted uranium bombs that were fired in war zones. This certainly happened in Somalia, it could have happened in Iraq with the NBC (nuclear, bacteriological, chemical) forces, who were stationed at Bassora. The troops in Somalia collected pieces of radioactive material, together with sand, from where the bombs fell. They put this material into metal containers and transported it to Italy, where the contaminated material was dealt with by workmen, often unprotected.
And they didn’t choose to do this.
L’Unione Sarda newspaper got hold of a 2001 military document which proved that the soldiers had been handling depleted uranium bombs, without knowing that that was what they were.
This document is a request for health checks from the artificieri (whose names have been covered up to protect them) from a base in Tuscany. The document is addressed to those in command, requesting that the organization responsible for carrying out health checks should carry out these checks.
These are the key passages from the document, (the signs that appear at the beginning indicate, according to NATO codes, perforating anti tank depleted uranium bombs: the brackets are in the original).
“As far as depleted uranium is concerned the personel specified here were working with anti tank bombs from Lot 105/51 mm APFS/DS-T-DM33 (depleted uranium) and with explosive and non-explosive material (including sacks of sand and various materials). These materials were brought back from other areas (areas at risk) in containers and military vehicles to be counted and deposited in a temporary store, prior to being taken back to the deposit.
We would like to bring to your attention the fact that when the work was carried out on the sum total of the bombs returning from Somalia, the outer shells, when they returned to the munitions deposit, showed signs of having been under water and they were malformed, so that it was difficult to establish which of the bombs, or how many of them, were in good condition, without a more detailed examination.
In order to accertain whether the bombs were still usable, the workers opened the boxes and containers and took the bombs out. Then they cleaned the shells and the bombs with wire wool where they were oxidised. Then they polished the shells and bombs with vaseline oil and jute cloth, after which they put them back into their containers, now clean and perfect.
The conclusion of our request is: the personel who carried out this work did it without taking any precautions because they thought they were dealing with materials that were the same as any other materials in the store. We await a detailed response and the health checks that we requested and thank you for your attention. 12/01/2001
Yours faithfully
The artificiere personel
The Ibis Mission in Somalia began in December 1992 and ended in January 1994. Eleven Italian soldiers lost their lives there.
The work on the bombs and contaminated sand was carried out in January 2001.
The reason for this was: when questions were raised in parliament on the 21st Dec 2000 concerning the illnesses and deaths possibly caused by depleted uranium, (reported by the Unione Sarda and Libero newspapers), the minister of defence, Sergio Mattarella (Ulivo party, under the government of Giuliano Amato) admitted that 10,800 radioactive bombs were dropped in Bosnia, but denied that these munitions were used in the poligono of Teulada (Somalia?)
In a few days soldiers of the 7th Regiment NBC stationed at Civitavecchia will be in Iraq. Will they be bringing anything back to Italy? Where will it be stored?
direzione-tecnica@misteriditalia.com
SABBIA CONTAMINATA E FRAMMENTI DEI COLPI SPARATI IN SOMALIA NELLA GUERRA DEL ’93 di Marco Mostallino da: L'Unione Sarda, 29 maggio 2003
Contaminated sand and fragments of the bombs that were fired during the war in Somalia in 1993.
By Marco Mostallino. From L’Unione Sarda, 29 March 2003
“We handle depleted uranium bombs with bare hands”. This is what Italian soldiers said in 1993.
A military document demonstrates that radioactive bombs are kept in Italian bases with little attention to health and safety.
This is a story about silence. Silence about the fact that Italian soldiers pick up the depleted uranium bombs that were fired in war zones. This certainly happened in Somalia, it could have happened in Iraq with the NBC (nuclear, bacteriological, chemical) forces, who were stationed at Bassora. The troops in Somalia collected pieces of radioactive material, together with sand, from where the bombs fell. They put this material into metal containers and transported it to Italy, where the contaminated material was dealt with by workmen, often unprotected.
And they didn’t choose to do this.
L’Unione Sarda newspaper got hold of a 2001 military document which proved that the soldiers had been handling depleted uranium bombs, without knowing that that was what they were.
This document is a request for health checks from the artificieri (whose names have been covered up to protect them) from a base in Tuscany. The document is addressed to those in command, requesting that the organization responsible for carrying out health checks should carry out these checks.
These are the key passages from the document, (the signs that appear at the beginning indicate, according to NATO codes, perforating anti tank depleted uranium bombs: the brackets are in the original).
“As far as depleted uranium is concerned the personel specified here were working with anti tank bombs from Lot 105/51 mm APFS/DS-T-DM33 (depleted uranium) and with explosive and non-explosive material (including sacks of sand and various materials). These materials were brought back from other areas (areas at risk) in containers and military vehicles to be counted and deposited in a temporary store, prior to being taken back to the deposit.
We would like to bring to your attention the fact that when the work was carried out on the sum total of the bombs returning from Somalia, the outer shells, when they returned to the munitions deposit, showed signs of having been under water and they were malformed, so that it was difficult to establish which of the bombs, or how many of them, were in good condition, without a more detailed examination.
In order to accertain whether the bombs were still usable, the workers opened the boxes and containers and took the bombs out. Then they cleaned the shells and the bombs with wire wool where they were oxidised. Then they polished the shells and bombs with vaseline oil and jute cloth, after which they put them back into their containers, now clean and perfect.
The conclusion of our request is: the personel who carried out this work did it without taking any precautions because they thought they were dealing with materials that were the same as any other materials in the store. We await a detailed response and the health checks that we requested and thank you for your attention. 12/01/2001
Yours faithfully
The artificiere personel
The Ibis Mission in Somalia began in December 1992 and ended in January 1994. Eleven Italian soldiers lost their lives there.
The work on the bombs and contaminated sand was carried out in January 2001.
The reason for this was: when questions were raised in parliament on the 21st Dec 2000 concerning the illnesses and deaths possibly caused by depleted uranium, (reported by the Unione Sarda and Libero newspapers), the minister of defence, Sergio Mattarella (Ulivo party, under the government of Giuliano Amato) admitted that 10,800 radioactive bombs were dropped in Bosnia, but denied that these munitions were used in the poligono of Teulada (Somalia?)
In a few days soldiers of the 7th Regiment NBC stationed at Civitavecchia will be in Iraq. Will they be bringing anything back to Italy? Where will it be stored?
direzione-tecnica@misteriditalia.com
SABBIA CONTAMINATA E FRAMMENTI DEI COLPI SPARATI IN SOMALIA NELLA GUERRA DEL ’93 di Marco Mostallino da: L'Unione Sarda, 29 maggio 2003
Contaminated sand and fragments of the bombs that were fired during the war in Somalia in 1993.
By Marco Mostallino. From L’Unione Sarda, 29 March 2003
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