Note: For Dr. Rokke's findings on Depleted Uranium please click here.

by Dr. Doug Rokke (posted 5-3-00)

Dr. Doug Rokke is former head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project and one of the authors of the Pentagon's Program for Environmental Remediation of Formerly Used Defense Sites.

• "VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - With a showdown looming over the U.S. Navy's prime Atlantic training ground, protesters who have blocked bombing for over a year said Tuesday that federal agents would have to arrest them to clear the range but promised they wouldn't fight back.
  
  Supporters from the U.S. mainland, including U.S. legislators Luis V. Gutierrez and Nydia Velazquez, promised Tuesday to join the protesters, and national and international church councils urged President Clinton to call off any planned raid. " (AP, 5/2/00, 6:30 PM)

[ Note from Emperors-clothes. Agents of the Justice (?) Department now await orders to evict people protesting the Navy's destruction of Vieques. Emperors-Clothes has received several emails urging support for the protestors. See the end of this article for links to other Websites and articles concerning this issue.]

www.emperors-clothes.com

"Not one more bomb"
by Dr. Doug Rokke (posted 5-3-00)

DOD officials are ready to use force against the residents of Vieques. The citizens of the world must band together to help the residents of Vieques.

This protest started because U.S. Marine Corps pilots willfully fired depleted uranium in violation of laws and regulations, as admitted by U.S. Navy officials, into Vieques and then a Navy pilot dropped a bomb that killed one and injured others. The claim has been that the bomb went off course. Funny thing about physics and Newtonian mechanics, bombs only go where you place them. Therefore the claim that the bomb was errant is pure rubbish. The pilot killed that guard and injured the others because he was wrong and was not careful with the bomb release. That is pure negligence!

This is also an issue of environmental justice where U.S. Department of Defense representatives refuse to provide medical care for all exposed individuals and also complete environmental remediation. U.S. Forces have contaminated the island of Vieques for too long, causing health and environmental damage. It must stop now.

• In the (new) U.S. Army Manual of Common Tasks, the Department of Defense authors state that: "NOTE: Contamination [by depleted uranium] will make food and water unsafe for consumption."

Seems that Navy officials know that the use of DU causes willful harm because [this information] is in the required DU training that all DOD personnel must complete by order and law. Thus disregard of this information probably violates RCRA (42 CFR 901) and is a crime against humanity.

The U.S. Navy cites that Vieques is needed for training our forces, yet, the Navy has advertised that for a fee Vieques can be used by any nation. Here's a quote from the Navy advertisement:

• "Mission: consistently provide professional customer services, conduct real world anti-submarine warfare training for aircrafts, ships, and submarines of U.S. and foreign navies...Live-fire capability for most non-conventional weapons inventory...to provide airspace, surface, and subsurface water space for developmental and operational testing of new and existing weapons systems."

In case anyone has missed the most important part of this advertisement it is that "non-conventional" as cited has historically refers to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. If that has occurred over the years, that [explains] why the residents of Vieques are sick. Conventional weapon residues will also cause health and environmental problems.

It is time for everyone to support the residents of Vieques and demand that the U.S. Navy withdraw and cease all actions on that island. Just remember if the Navy willingly fired DU to prepare for battle in Kosovo then the next preparation with "non-conventional weapons" as advertised may be for use against you!

For additional information see: http://www.viequeslibre.org/ For Dr. Rokke's statement, see http://www.micronetix.net/virus/rokke.htm

Further reading...

• Inequality of Destruction: Cape Cod and Vieques by Richard Hugus at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/inequali.htm

• Visit to a Small Island by Elliot Blass at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/blass/visittoa.htm

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