Depleted Uranium-    Miles says    -is the real "weapons of mass destruction"

Mike Miles is a longtime peace and justice advocate, running as the Green Party congressional candidate for the 7th district in northern Wisconsin.  Miles is  trying to bring attention to the American use of radio-active weapons in the Middle East.  Earlier last summer, Miles was arrested at a Minnesota weapons plant, Alliant Tech Systems, while trying to talk with company officials.   Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network reports. click here for live stream broadcast

Miles opposes radio-active weapons

	Mike Miles is running for Congress because he wants to support the troops  and the Iraqi people by bringing attention to the health effects of the American use of depleted uranium ammunition in the Middle East.
	To learn more about Mike Miles www.milesforcongress.com

  

Mike Miles is running for Congress because he wants to support the troops  and the Iraqi people by bringing attention to the health effects of the American use of depleted uranium ammunition in the middle east.

 

Mike Miles is  a longtime peace and justice advocate, running for the United States congress in the seventh district.  Miles is  trying to bring attention to the American use of radio-active weapons in the middle east.  Earlier last summer, Miles was arrested at a Minnesota weapons plant, Alliant Tech Systems, while trying to talk with company officials.   Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network reports.

 

Mike Miles suggests that the true weapon of mass destruction in the Middle East is the American use of radio-active ammunition.

 

The use of weapons of mass destruction is forbidden by international law.

 

Opponents of  so-called depleted uranium ammunition say that it blurs the distinction between conventional and nuclear war.

 

Mike Miles is a protégé of the radical Catholic, anti-war priests Daniel and Phillip Berrigan.  And like the Berrigans Miles thinks the United States is guilty of war crimes by using depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans, and the Middle East.

 

Miles bases his thinking on the late nineteen forties Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.

 

“Kind of the kernel of this way of thinking relies on Nuremberg.  After the Nuremberg tribunal, at the end of World War 2, not only were individuals held responsible for their actions, but so were corporations, and it’s all about not being able to say, we were following orders, and Nuremberg determined that corporations can’t get away with that.”

 

The Nuremberg judges held German civilians responsible for development of illegal weapons.

 

The German Flick Corporation, for instance, was held responsible for making the poison gas used in the gas chambers.  The owner Friederich Flick served time in jail for the crime against humanity.

 

For several years now, anti war activists have been vigiling in front of Alliant Techsystems in Edina, Minnesota, trying to talk with the company. The company ATK is the largest manufacturer of depleted uranium weapons in the world.

 

Last July Miles and three others walked up the driveway.

 

“So we walked up to their front door with pictures of children who had suffered birth abnormalities in Iraq and then I had a video tape I’d made when I was there after 9-11 that was cued up to spot with a Iraqi pediatrician talking about birth defects and he was showing us birth abnormalities in his hospital near Basra.  And we wanted the company to see these things.”

 

Miles and his comrades were met by security.  Miles tried to make an appointment to talk with a corporate spokesperson.  But security said “that’s not possible.” 

 

“No, no, you can’t make an appointment. So we went back and forth.  It was all very respectful and fortunately the Edina police were standing right there, listening to this whole exchange.”

“and I said look, this is so urgent, because this is what’s happening, so I tried to show these photographs, to this Alliant Tech security person, who completely averted her eyes, I mean she would not look at the photographs.  Everybody was struck by how clearly that happened at which point she said to the police.

(To view these pictures, which are beyond horrifying, click here)

"Take these people out of here.” she said...........

 The group was taken to the Edina police station and booked for trespass.

 

“The police related that the district attorney is fed up with Alliant Tech.  That it would be so much easier if the company would just talk and  just have someone in charge of that.  They didn’t want to have any part of that.  So people are continuing to go back and ask for meetings.”

 

The story about Miles’ arrest went out on the Associated Press wire around the country.  And the  faith and values commentator for the Minneapolis Star Tribune did a series on resistance to the war machine.

 

“And he was coming at it from the point of view of doing civil disobedience and I said no, I don’t even think this is civil disobedience.  So he did a two part series on that.  The first one was I presented to him.  He tried to do a story with Alliant Tech

and was frustrated by them not talking with him.  So he said Alliant Tech should stop arresting people and talk about it.  We were just delighted, this is some of the best information that’s gotten out in front of the public about the whole thing.”

 

According to Miles, an early study of possible health effects from exposure to depleted uranium by a US army major and Gulf War veteran Doug Rokke.  Almost everybody in Rokke’s investigative team has died and Rokke himself has high levels of uranium in his blood and is extremely ill.

 

Miles advises anyone going to Iraq use every available precaution to protect themselves against radio- active dust blowing around the vicinity of tank battles. Miles says, “I don’t know what to tell women, but men who are hoping to have healthy families when they return should think about banking sperm before being deployed to Iraq.”

 

I’m Nick Vander Puy for the Superior Broadcast Network

 

 

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