US and Israel Targeting DNA in Gaza? :: The DIME Bomb: Yet another genotoxic weapon

[balantz]

US and Israel Targeting DNA in Gaza? :: The DIME Bomb: Yet another genotoxic weapon ::

by James Brooks
(Monday, December 4, 2006)

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/38389

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"This warfare of the future is reminiscent of what Israel has been doing for years, but with one-ton bombs, 155-mm artillery shells, and tank-fired antipersonnel flechette bombs. Are FLM weapons like DIME an improvement? Or will they actually increase civilian casualties and suffering, and mimic depleted uranium weapons by inducing disease and genetic damage in their victims?"


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:: Part 1 of 3 ::

It’s been almost five months since the first report that Israeli drone aircraft have been dropping a “mystery weapon” on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since then, news media around the world have run stories depicting the strange and “horrific” wounds inflicted by the new bomb. The international press has spoken with Palestinian doctors and medics who say Israel’s new device is a kind of chemical weapon that has significantly increased the fatality rate among the victims of Israeli attacks. <1><2>

In mid-October, Italian investigators reported forensic evidence that suggests the new weapon may also represent the near future of US “counterinsurgency warfare”. Combined with photographs of the victims and testimony from attending doctors, this evidence points to the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). <3>

DIME is an LCD (“low collateral damage”) weapon developed at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Publicly, it is slated for initial deployment in 2008. DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).<4-11>

It is unfortunate that the US media have virtually blacked out the story of Israel’s new weapon, not least because our own military may soon be using it in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story might also have told us something about the grossly disproportionate brutality of Israel’s war on the Palestinian people—reason enough for the media to suppress it. <12>

Thanks to the intrepid Italians, the story could even have introduced Americans to their government’s DIME weapons program. This three-part article will ask whether Israel is ‘testing’ US DIME bombs in the Gaza Strip, and explore the workings, dangers, and projected use of DIME weapons and their roots in depleted uranium (DU) research. These parallels will lead us to consider DIME in its historical context, as the latest innovation in the US military’s long-running development of genotoxic weapons.

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[lapfog_1]

1. One major component motive in our wars

or wars waged by our proxies, especially Israel, is the field test of new weapons systems.

First I've heard of DIME, but it doesn't surprise me. 7 years after 9/11 and we've been busy beavers developing weapons to "smoke 'em out" of the caves and target individuals for termination.

Mission: Accomplished... indeed.

[formercia]

6. It's the smoke that gets 'em.

Depleted Uranium in metallic form is quite inert. The reason it is so effective as an armor-piercing weapon, besides its high density is that it is pyrophoric, it ignites on impact, thus acting as an incendiary weapon. The resulting Uranium Oxide 'smoke' is very finely dispersed and easily deposited in the lungs, ingested or deposited on the surface of the body where it may remain in contact for some time. It becomes a fine dust that is blown about by air currents and may disperse long distances from its initial point of use.

Many heavy metals, while inert in their metallic form, become highly toxic, mutagenic or even carcinogenic when converted to oxides or salts.

[DCKit]

11. Thank you for the explanation on how DU works...

and why it's so damn insidious.

[newfie11]

2. So just killing people isn't good enough anymore

What will we think of next!:banghead::hide:

[nashville_brook]

3. is it genocide yet?

[acmavm]

4. We past that point long long ago.

[Soylent Brice]

5. 5th rec

this needs to be seen.

[balantz]

7. We need to be aware of these hideous things and help others become aware.

They can be used against us as well.

We need to be a potent voice against the world war machine of the elite.

[OneBlueSky]

8. one absolutely true fact about modern weaponry . . .

humankind has yet to devise a new, more destructve weapon -- and then not use it . . .

that mentality is likely what's mandating the use of the DIME bombs in Gaza . . . we've developed them, they're bought and paid for, so we have to use them . . . wouldn't want all that money to go to waste, now would we? . . .

I hate to think what else is in the pipeline . . .

[Karenina]

9. Slam dunk.

[bemildred]

10. Well, they got rid of most of the old cluster bombs in Lebanon.

Frugal to a fault.