Is
DU Being Used in Afghanistan?
If you take at face value the parliamentary response
from Geoff Hoon, Secretary of State for Defence, the answer to the
question would be ‘no’. He states “No British Forces currently
engaged in operations around Afghanistan are armed with depleted uranium
ammunition. However, we do not rule
out the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Afghanistan, should
its penetrative capability be judged necessary in the future”.
In later parliamentary responses he said that
“Depleted uranium-based ammunition has not been used in current operations
in Afghanistan. We are not aware of any plans for it to be used in
future.” implying without directly stating that it is not being used
by US forces either. Lewis Moonie MP of the MoD said that whether
US forces are using DU is a matter for the US government.
Papers report DU
in Afghanistan
However, there have been various reports in newspapers in Pakistan
and elsewhere, claiming that DU is being used. DAWN quotes an unnamed
‘leading military expert’ who says DU shells have been rained down
on Afghanistan. A better researched article in Weekly Independent
(Pakistan) refers to a case of a mysterious illness in an Afghan child
which led the doctor to believe they were a victim of chemical or
radiation poisoning. As further evidence it offers a recent statement
questioning the safety of the US troops in Afghanistan, where it claims
the American Defense Department spokesperson Kenneth Bacon indirectly
confirmed the use of nuclear waste, saying “We obviously put out instructions
about avoiding Depleted Uranium dust. Our troops are instructed to
wear masks if they’re around what they consider to be atomised or
particle-sized DU”. This is of course not
hard evidence and we cannot use this to claim that DU is being used
in Afghanistan, particularly when faced with denials from the government.
However, we should not be put off so easily, as it is far from clear
that there is no DU being used at all. Independent DU researcher Dai
Williams has spent much time digging into the weapons specifications
of the ‘bunker-buster’ bombs, and other new generation “hard target”
smart bombs and cruise missiles used to attack Taliban bunkers, caves,
command centres, fuel and ammunition stores.
Mystery ‘dense’
metal could be DU
His research dug up the facts that the 2 tonne
GBU-37 Bunker Busters and 2000 lb GBU-24 Pave-way smart bombs, plus
the Boeing AGM-86D, Maverick AGM-65G and AGM-145C hard target capability
cruise missiles all use advanced unitary penetrators (AUP-113, AUP-116,
P31) or BROACH warheads with the mystery high density metal in alloy
casings. The mystery metal must be hard and at least 2x as heavy as
steel. Tungsten and DU are the main options. Both are used by US and
UK forces for armour piercing shells. DU is preferred because it is
burns inside the target to become an incendiary bomb and is far cheaper
and easier to manufacture. Dai wrote to
his MP and received the following answer “The Ministry of Defence
cannot confirm the specific composition of these types of munitions.
However, there is a range of heavy metals that could be considered
under that term including .... tungsten.... These types of metal are
used in order to maintain the ground (or concrete) penetration capability
of the munition, an option not suited to the softer DU metal. Therefore,
DU would not be expected to be used for this capability. There
are suggestions that DU might be used in small quantities to act as
ballast in some munitions, however, we are unable to confirm whether
or not this is the case at this time.”[our italics] But says Dai,
Janes Defence website initially stated that “DU’s ductility is
suitable for making penetrators...” (Feb 2001). The MoD answer
above does not fully answer the questions as to which metal is being
used both as penetrators and as ballast, and also as this would not
be classed as DU ammunition (as it is not the DU shells we
usually refer to, but possibly ballast, or a component of other weapons)
it would not be covered by the parliamentary statement by Geoff Hoon,
which rather carefully always refers to DU ammunition. The implications
of this are clear, and we must demand more answers from the government.
If use DU is confirmed, it merely adds to the hypocrisy of this so-called
‘war on terrorism’. Lets hope that Operation Enduring Freedom doesn’t
become enduring misery for the Afghan people faced with the dangerous
effects of DU. Dai Williams is an occupational psychologist and independent
DU researcher. His information is mainly from web sources (listed
below), in particular the Federation of American Scientists website
. Unfortunately all the FAS links used in his analysis appear to have
been “pulled” shortly after he began distributing his findings. The
reference above to DU’s ductility from Jane’s Defence website has
also now been changed. Dai said “The deletion of the FAS pages is
a smart move by US security agencies. The credibility of my concerns
about potential large scale use of DU in Afghanistan is much harder
for the media and other DU researchers to verify now.”
The full report can be seen at http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/du2012.htm
Dai can be contacted at [email protected]
More detailed information is on the pandora project
website: http://www.pandora.project.on.to
Janes Defence: http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jdw/jdw011007_1_n.shtml
FAS links to guided missile and bomb specifications: http://www.fas.org/man/index.html
