In the past few months Saddam Hussein scared the world again with the threat of a new world conflict. The Iraqi dictator, whose country has almost no strength left, intended to restore the clash against the United States and accused the American observers of violating some areas considered as top secret for the security of his own country.   
One of the major risks of a new war is linked to armaments, or rather to chemical weapons .   
The Gulf crisis strongly underscored the danger such weapons might entail. The whole operation that was initially intended to be a lightning war, a “surgical operation”, in the end took a heavy toll even among the civilians, and left, moreover, a dramatic train of diversified pathologies on both fronts. Few words have been spent on such pathologies. Over the last three years, however, the government of the United States was forced to cope with thousands of cases of sick veterans, whose pathologies ranged from leukemia to immune<d>deficiency syndromes, to genetic malformations in children conceived after the conflict.   
What are the causes of all this? The CIA, after 6 years of silence, was forced to admit that it was all true. The Gulf syndrome does exist. At the same time it immediately blamed the Iraqis, claiming that they were guilty of improperly piling chemical weapons inside the depots which were not suitable for such use. It seems that the bombing of the anti-Saddam front topped it all. Probably this is what happened. The CIA, however, continues not to talk of the use of depleted uranium, a less noble component of enriched uranium used to coat bullets, missiles and bombs for the war. The USA and Great Britain are among the countries that fought against Saddam that certainly used depleted uranium.   
What is the meaning of all this?   
It is not yet completely clear. What is clear instead, is that depleted uranium seems to be the biggest business of today’s war industry, as well as a convenient and shameful means to “eliminate waste”. A problem, then, that will certainly cause a stir. Meanwhile, the following interviews can make everybody meditate, especially the medical community, on one of the brutalities of this millennium’s last years.   
By Saddam’s leave.   

Interview with Ramsey Clark, lawyer and former US Minister of Justice   

Mister Clark, how was the question of the Gulf syndrome born?  

When the American military personnel returned from the war in Iraq, they began to complain about a whole series of symptoms no one could explain. More than 90,000 people reported them, about 60,000 were taken into consideration and about 28,000 are currently receiving a disability pension.   
In many cases there are various signs of poisoning: due to radiation, chemicals, or even just combustion oil.   

You have a very critical position with respect to your country’s military choices. Why?  

With the passing of the years, we become aware that research and development are militarism worse part. People get to know what the new armaments are very late. In the case of the Agent Orange which was used in Vietnam, it took them five years. Meanwhile, on the other hand, hundreds of thousands of people were damaged by it, including thousands of American soldiers.   

What do you think of depleted uranium?   

Its use is extremely dangerous. Huge quantities were used during the Gulf War. We sent 110,000 air raids, threw 88,500 tons of bombs, fired 15,000 heavy missiles containing depleted uranium and more than 900,000 ammunition chargers containing depleted uranium. Result: about one million and a half pounds of depleted uranium spread throughout Iraq.   

What does happen when depleted uranium is spread all around?   

What happens is that it is almost impossible to “clean up” what was affected. When a bullet or uranium bomb hit a metal, in fact, they atomize, disintegrate and become vapour that remains in the air and then settles in the soil and penetrates in water beds.   

What are the effects on people?   

The effect on the people who live in Iraq is devastating. Since 1993, that is two years after the end of the American bombing, there have been a very large number of leukemia cases in children and babies born with anomalies. And also tumours in groups of people and age brackets that rarely affect them and in an increasingly growing number. In 1994, some assumed that that could have been triggered by the presence of depleted uranium.   

But weren’t the acts of the Geneva Convention broken in this way?   

The attack of any objectives that might spread dangerous substances and jeopardize the civilians’ life is forbidden by the Geneva Convention. On December 4, 1990, however, the United Nations General Assembly voted to prohibit the attack against nuclear reactors in Iraq in case of conflict. The motion was passed by 144 against one: the whole world voted in favour while the United States voted against it.   
On January 23, 1991, General Colin Powell appeared on television and announced that we had destroyed both active nuclear reactors in Iraq and that they were “kaput”. These were his words.   

And nothing happened?   

No. On January 30 our general told us that we had destroyed 18 of Iraq’s major chemical plants: to me that was a real war crime. But let me say it again, the problem today is depleted uranium.   

What is exactly depleted uranium?   

It’s a by-product of what we use to make fuel for nuclear plants, reactors and nuclear bombs. It is very compact, extremely dense, much heavier than lead and when it is fired at great speed and hits a metal it becomes almost liquid, and burns through steel. This is one of the reasons why our air force was so successful in destroying all the Iraqi forces. When a depleted uranium laser-guided missile hits something, the armoured vehicle disappears, as the people inside too.   

Yet, the United States declared that the American soldiers were exposed to chemical weapons because of an erroneous bombardment. Could you sum up what was said and assess the truthfulness of such statements?  

It wasn’t exactly a bombardment. As most of Iraq’s major buildings were made by American and European companies, we already had some sort of map of its main activities. We knew that there were powder magazines in southern Iraq. It is common knowledge that the CIA knew that there were chemical weapons inside such magazines. In the month of March, when hostilities ceased, we sent there men who blew up these magazines with dynamite. The effect on hundreds, maybe even thousands, of American soldiers involved in demolition exercises was tragic in itself: we tend, of course, to ignore what happened to the people living there.   

Why did the US government make some official statements? In other words, why did it admit such things?  

At the beginning the government was proud to announce the destruction of all Iraqi structures. Government officials talked generically of powder magazines. They began to admit that they knew there were chemical weapons in those places only when many cases of disease inside the sappers’ battalion were officially reported. Were it not for the pressure exerted by some groups of people, we would have never known anything about it.   
The same thing happened with depleted uranium. They tried to hide the amount of depleted uranium used in Iraq as much as they could. It took us eighteen months to find out exactly the amount used. We initially asked the Pentagon about it but the figures they told us were just a small fraction of the amount actually used. The estimates were 50,000 bullets. Now we know, and the Pentagon also confirmed it, that more than 900,000 bullets were used. As far as the silver bullets are concerned, we thought the figure was 5 or 6,000 but now the Pentagon tells us 14,000.   

Are there people or groups of American soldiers who sued the government?   

Yes, there are. But there also are those who fought in Iraq and now bear their disease without asking themselves what the cause is.   

Interview with Jeffry Ford, sapper in the Iraq war   

I was the sapper in Iraq, - says Jeffry Ford, - and my task was the demolition of Iraqi chemical weapons depots. In March 1991 we blew some chemical weapons depots up and probably our own soldiers were contaminated.   

Do you think that this is the cause of the Gulf syndrome?   

Not only.  

What other causes do you assume?   

There also was the smoke from the fires of the oil wells, the inoculation of vaccines, the use of experimental drugs, as well as depleted uranium munitions that become powder when they penetrate armoured vehicles. Soldiers inhaled or swallowed this powder.   
Today we believe that the use of depleted uranium can be very dangerous and could have caused many health problems that the soldiers of the various armed forces com<d>plai<d>ned about.   

Who used depleted uranium in Iraq?   

The United States, Great Britain... We spoke with some Pentagon’s officials and we know that our armed forces intend to keep on using it as it is considered as a very valid weapon. In Iraq, for example, the use of depleted uranium bullets allowed us to fire enemy tanks three thousand metres away.  

As far as you know, was depleted uranium used only in Iraq?   

No, it wasn’t. It was also used in Bosnia during the peace mission. Potentially, it could be used in every country around the world the United States is carrying out military operations with.   

Interview with Damacio Lopez, independent researcher - Albuquerque, New Mexico  

Depleted uranium weapons, - says Damacio Lopez, - use a waste product. Minerals containing uranium undergo a process to obtain pure uranium in specific plants. Pure uranium is then taken to the fusion plant where most of the valid isotope 235U is won from the rest. The amount of 235U in elementary uranium accounts for less than 1% of the total amount (0,7%, editor’s note). About 60% of it can be used. The remaining part, that still contains the isotope 235U, is called “depleted uranium”. Half of it contains the radioactivity of elementary uranium but the same toxicity as pure uranium.   

Why wasn’t it used before? I mean, the atomic bomb was invented many years ago...  

No countries ever used it as it was considered as inhuman. Nevertheless, after the Gulf War, the countries that have nuclear technology and depleted uranium felt entitled to produce it.   

What do you exactly mean?   

This country is selling depleted uranium, uranium weapons and the technology to manufacture them to other countries in the world. The government of the United States is among those that voted against United Nations’ further investigations on depleted uranium.   

How does a bullet made with depleted uranium work?   

The only thing that is not made of uranium in these bullets is their stabilizing fin. When they are fired, nothing but the nucleus remains, the rest disintegrates when it gets out of the cannon. And because uranium is twice and a half times harder than steel, we will have a thinner diameter, a lower air resistance and consequently a greater range. In Iraq, incidents caused by friendly fire stemmed from this fact: the bullets went so far that they made it impossible to know to whom they were directed.