Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: Israel Treated Gaza Like Its Own Private Death Laboratory

By Conn Hallinan 
Foreign Policy In Focus 
February 14,
2009
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5862
Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist, worked in Gaza
hospitals during the recent war."It was as if they had
stepped on a mine," he says of certain Palestinian
patients he treated. "But there was no shrapnel in the
wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though
they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for
30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before."
Dr. Fosse was describing the effects of a U.S. "focused
lethality" weapon that minimizes explosive damage to
structures while inflicting catastrophic wounds on its
victims. But where did the Israelis get this weapon?
And was their widespread use in the attack on Gaza a
field test for a new generation of explosives?
DIMEd to Death
The specific weapon is called a Dense Inert Metal
Explosive (DIME). In 2000, the U.S. Air Force teamed up
with the University of California's Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. The weapon wraps high explosives
with a tungsten alloy and other metals like cobalt,
nickel, or iron in a carbon fiber/epoxy container. When
the bomb explodes the container evaporates, and the
tungsten turns into micro-shrapnel that is extremely
lethal within a 13-foot radius. Tungsten is inert, so
it doesn't react chemically with the explosive. While a
non-inert metal like aluminum would increase the blast,
tungsten actually contains the explosion to a limited
area.
Within the weapon's range, however, it's inordinately
lethal. According to Norwegian doctor Mad Gilbert, the
blast results in multiple amputations and "very severe
fractures. The muscles are sort of split from the
bones, hanging loose, and you also have quite severe
burns." Most of those who survive the initial blast
quickly succumb to septicemia and organ collapse.
"Initially, everything seems in orderbut it turns out
on operation that dozens of miniature particles can be
found in all their organs," says Dr. Jam Brommundt, a
German doctor working in Kham Younis, a city in
southern Gaza. "It seems to be some sort of explosive
or shell that disperses tiny particlesthat penetrate
all organs, these miniature injuries, you are not able
to attack them surgically." According to Brommundt, the
particles cause multiple organ failures.
If by some miracle victims resist those conditions,
they are almost certain to develop rhabdomyosarcoma
(RMS), a particularly deadly cancer that deeply embeds
itself into tissue and is almost impossible to treat. A
2005 U.S. Department of health study found that
tungsten stimulated RMS cancers even in very low doses.
All of the 92 rats tested developed the cancer.
While DIMEs were originally designed to avoid
"collateral" damage generated by standard high-
explosive bombs, the weapon's lethality and profound
long-term toxicity hardly seem like an improvement.
It appears DIME weapons may have been used in the 2006
Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but not enough to alarm
medical workers. But in Gaza, the ordinance was widely
used. Al-Shifta alone has seen 100 to 150 victims of
these attacks.
Gaza as Test
Dr. Gilbert told the Oslo Gardermoen, "there is a
strong suspicion that Gaza is now being used as a test
laboratory for new weapons."
DIME is a U.S. invention. Did the Israelis get the
weapons from the United States, or did they design
similar ones themselves? Given the close relations
between the two militaries, it isn't unlikely that the
U.S. Air Force supplied the weapons or, at least, the
specifications on how to construct them. And since the
United States has yet to use the device in a war, it
would certainly benefit from seeing how these new
"focused lethality" weapons worked under battlefield
conditions.
Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch's senior military
advisor, says "it remains to be seen how Israel has
acquired the technology, whether they purchased weapons
from the United States under some agreement, or if they
in fact licensed or developed their own type of
munitions."
DIME weapons aren't banned under the Geneva Conventions
because they have never been officially tested.
However, any weapon capable of inflicting such
horrendous damage is normally barred from use,
particularly in one of the most densely populated
regions in the world.
For one thing, no one knows how long the tungsten
remains in the environment or how it could affect
people who return to homes attacked by a DIME.
University of Arizona cancer researcher Dr. Mark
Witten, who investigates links between tungsten and
leukemia, says that in his opinion "there needs to be
much more research on the health effects of tungsten
before the military increases its usage."
Beyond DIMEs
DIMEs weren't the only controversial weapons used in
Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) also made
generous use of white phosphorus, a chemical that burns
with intense heat and inflicts terrible burns on
victims. In its vapor form it also damages breathing
passages. International law prohibits the weapon's use
near population areas and requires that "all reasonable
precautions" be taken to avoid civilians.
Israel initially denied using the chemical. "The IDF
acts only in accordance with what is permitted by
international law and does not use white phosphorus,"
said Israel's Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on January
13.
But eyewitness accounts in Gaza and Israel soon forced
the IDF to admit that they were, indeed, using the
substance. On January 20, the IDF confessed to using
phosphorus artillery shells as smokescreens, as well as
200 U.S.-made M825A1 phosphorus mortar shells on "Hamas
fighters and rocket launching crews in northern Gaza."
Three of those shells hit the UN Works and Relief
Agency compound on January 15, igniting a fire that
destroyed hundreds of tons of humanitarian supplies. A
phosphorus shell also hit Al-Quds hospital in Gaza
City. The Israelis say there were Hamas fighters near
the two targets, a charge that witnesses adamantly
deny.
Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International said: "Such
extensive use of this weapon in Gaza's densely-
populated residential neighborhoodsand its toll on
civilians is a war crime."
Israel is also accused of using depleted uranium
ammunition (DUA), which a UN sub-commission in 2002
found in violation of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions,
the International Convention Against Torture, the
Conventional Weapons Convention, and the Hague
Conventions against the use of poison weapons.
DUA isn't highly radioactive, but after exploding, some
of it turns into a gas that can easily be inhaled. The
dense shrapnel that survives also tends to bury itself
deeply, leaching low-level radioactivity into water-
tables.
War Crimes?
Other human-rights groups, including B'Tselem, Gisha,
and Physicians for Human Rights, charge that the IDF
intentionally targeted medical personal, killing over a
dozen, including paramedics and ambulance drivers.
The International Federation for Human Rights called on
the UN Security Council to refer Israel to the
International Criminal Court for possible war crimes.
Although the Israelis dismiss the war-crimes charges,
the fact that the Israeli cabinet held a special
meeting on January 25 to discuss the issue suggests
they're concerned about being charged with
"disproportionate" use of force. The Geneva Conventions
require belligerents to at "all times" distinguish
between combatants and civilians and to avoid
"disproportionate force" in seeking military gains.
Hamas' use of unguided missiles fired at Israel would
also be a war crime under the Conventions.
"The one-sidedness of casualty figures is one measure
of disproportion," says Richard Falk, the UN's human
rights envoy for the occupied territories. A total of
14 Israelis have been killed in the fighting, three of
them civilians killed by rockets, 11 of them soldiers,
four of the latter by "friendly fire." Some 50 IDF
soldiers were also wounded.
In contrast, 1,330 Palestinians have died and 5,450
were injured, the overwhelming bulk of them civilians.
"This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation
of the laws of warfare, which we ask to be investigated
by the Commission of War Crimes," a coalition of
Israeli human rights groups and Amnesty International
said in a joint statement. "The responsibility of the
state of Israel is beyond doubt."
Enter the Hague?
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Justice
Minister Daniel Friedmann would coordinate the defense
of any soldier or commander charged with a war crime.
In any case, the United States would veto any effort by
the UN Security Council to refer Israelis to the
International Court at The Hague.
But, as the Financial Times points out, "all countries
have an obligation to search out those accused of
'grave' breaches of the rules of war and to put them on
trial or extradite them to a country that will."
That was the basis under which the British police
arrested Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998.
"We're in a seismic shift in international law,"
Amnesty International legal advisor Christopher Hall
told the Financial Times, who says Israel's foreign
ministry is already examining the risk to Israelis who
travel abroad.
"It's like walking across the street against a red
light," he says. "The risk may be low, but you're going
to think twice before committing a crime or traveling
if you have committed one."
Conn Hallinan is a Foreign Policy In Focus columnist.
-- 
<<Cover what you do best, link to the rest>>
UFV 
6sett: sex drive - Rachel Getting Married - Frost-Nixon - Nick and Norahs
Infinite Playlist
www.iaciners.org

Il Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:00:08 +0100, AP ha scritto:
[CUT]
Taggare l'OT, grazie.
Boris


letto.
interessante.
cosa vorrebbe significare questo post?

 cosa vorrebbe significare questo post?
Dunque tu ritieni che abbia il coraggio di risponderti ...

garsonpoole ha scritto:

semplice, AP dice di essere di sinistra, anzi per la dittatura del 
proletariato, poi pero' ogni tanto scrive cose come:
 >Quello che sta succedendo in questi giorni ad opera dei
 >delinquenti rumeni non mi mette di buona ispirazione
 >verso il cosmopolitisimo.
 >
 >I rumeni sono diventati europei per legge, come la
 >potabilita' dell'acqua, l'inquinamento dell'atmosfera
 >e l'assoluzione di berlusconi.
 >Senza delle leggi specifiche i rumeni non sarebbero
 >europei, l'acqua non sarebbe bevibile, l'aria respirabile e
 >berlusconi sarebbe in galera.
per lui e' tutto bianco o nero
nella fattispecie tutti gli ebrei sono cattivi e tutti i palestinesi 
buoni, Israele ha sempre torto e le organizzazioni palestinesi sempre 
ragione
N.