Al Mayadeen: traces of possible use of nuclear weapons by Israel have been found
Traces of the use of nuclear weapons by Israel have been found, writes Al Mayadeen. Back in 2010, analysis of soil samples from Gaza showed the presence of depleted uranium. Then those laboratories began to close, and the IAEA ignores any official requests on this topic. Is nuclear war becoming a reality?
After the attacks on Lebanon in 2006, on the Gaza Strip in 2008 and 2014, Israel used new nuclear weapons that kill with a flash of high-temperature radiation and neutrons.
The American Peace Information Council (APIC) and the Green Audit (UK) are investigating the possible use of small-sized nuclear weapons by Israel in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
Dr. Christopher Busby, Scientific Secretary of the European Radiation Risk Committee, former member of the UK Committee for the Study of Radiation Risks from internal radiation sources, as well as a former member of the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board of the UK Ministry of Defense, presents the scientific and social background of this case below.
APIC and Green Audit are asking people working in ambulances or living in the South to send air filters for the engines of ambulances that were bombed, samples of long hair (at least 10 cm), as well as soil samples where bombs fell, and Geiger counter readings. These materials must be delivered to the Al Mayadeen office, which, in turn, will forward them to the two aforementioned organizations.
Both organizations state: "One might think that the easiest way to get air filters for ambulances is from the Lebanese Red Cross Society, but its Secretary General Georges Katane refuses to help with this investigation."
Israel in the Gaza Strip: "red mercury"
In 2021, a scientific report in the prestigious journal Nature confirmed what I have been saying since 2006. After the attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and on the Gaza Strip in 2008 and 2014, Israel used new nuclear weapons that kill with a flash of high-temperature radiation and neutrons.
This is a weapon that leaves an identification mark, but does not leave fission products such as Caesium-137. It was also used by the United States in Fallujah (Iraq) in 2003, and before that in Kosovo.
Uranium dust, which can be inhaled, in combination with neutrons causes many serious and often fatal health consequences (for example, tissue damage), confusing doctors and making treatment difficult. Doctors, as a rule, do not know what causes such symptoms, which often indicate other diseases or lead to fatal fungal infections. All they can do is watch helplessly as irradiated people die.
When exposed directly to a flash of [high-temperature radiation and neutrons], the arms, legs, and poorly protected body parts are charred to black. Uranium dust, which can be inhaled, leads to fibrous changes in the lungs. From there, it enters the lymphatic system and subsequently causes cancer — and not only lymphoma and leukemia. A malignant tumor can occur in any part of the body, for example, in the chest, where there is an extensive network of lymphatic vessels. If a particle of [uranium] is coughed up and swallowed, it can cause colon cancer.
The consequences for the population exposed to uranium include gene mutations, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), congenital malformations, the likelihood of miscarriage, sex formation disorders and loss of fertility. All this was discovered during epidemiological studies that I helped conduct in Fallujah in 2010-2011.
This is not science fiction or manipulation of public opinion. I acted as an expert witness in two trials (in England and Australia), during which the judge and the medical examiner concluded that [uranium] particles cause colon cancer. I am currently helping an American Army veteran in his case against the military. He has a tumor of the pituitary gland (a small gland located behind the nose, where uranium particles got into).
I started this investigation in 2006, when an article appeared in a Lebanese newspaper that the sinkhole in Hiam (from an Israeli bomb) was radioactive. Dr. Ali Kubeisi measured the funnel with a Geiger counter and found that the background radiation level is twenty times higher than in soil from another region.
By 2006, I had become an authoritative expert on depleted uranium weapons. I testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs about the effects of depleted uranium and the Gulf War syndrome. I visited Iraq and Kosovo, and was also a member of the UK Government's Depleted Uranium Oversight Board. I have written reports, including for the United Nations (UN), and testified to the Royal Society.
I asked a colleague to go to Lebanon and bring samples from the funnel, as well as the air filter of the ambulance. When they were analyzed using two different methods, they showed the presence of enriched uranium, not depleted uranium. This is not possible unless the weapon was made from depleted uranium or was created as a result of neutron irradiation of U-234 and U-238.
To explain this, you need to be a little savvy in science. Natural uranium contains three isotopes: U-238, U-234 and U-235.
U-238 makes up more than 99.7% of all natural uranium.
U-235 is only 0.3%. It is important for the production of nuclear bombs and atomic energy. It is mined in various ways to produce enriched uranium.
The less radioactive U-238 is the main component of depleted uranium.
During decomposition, U-238 turns into Th-234 (thorium-234), which then undergoes two β-decays, turning into Pa-234 (protactinium-234) and then into U-234.
Next, you get a long list of secondary particles that we are not interested in. All this happens very quickly, and a large amount of radiation is released in the process. The radiation danger from depleted uranium is a reality, contrary to the military's claims that it does not pose a danger. Something like that. But this is not the main thing in this story.
The main question is: was there enriched uranium in the bomb dropped on Lebanon? Could it have been a laboratory error? The answer is no. We used two different laboratories and two different methods of uranium analysis: ICPMS and alpha spectrometry.
What we found was published by journalist Robert Fisk in The Independent newspaper in October 2006. The article was called "The Secret of Israel's Secret Uranium Bomb."
Until we found enriched uranium, I focused on the health effects of depleted uranium.
In 2006, the Italian nuclear physicist Emilio Del Giudice contacted me. I met him in London, where he told me that the source of the enriched uranium was a new weapon that used deuterium (heavy hydrogen) dissolved in uranium. When this baseball-sized warhead was launched at a solid object, hydrogen was subjected to cold fusion to form helium and emitted powerful gamma radiation, which caused U-238 to turn into unstable U-239, which decayed into U-235 and neutrons.
I am not a nuclear physicist, although I have my own thoughts about this explanation, but at the time I agreed with Giudice. At least that explained the source of the uranium enrichment.
In 2008, I was contacted by several doctors from Egypt who were interested in whether the Israelis were bombing Gaza with depleted uranium shells. With great difficulty, I managed to get samples from Gaza: soil and air filters. The analysis showed the presence of depleted uranium. In 2010, as part of the Al Fallujah Birth Defects Study, we tested mothers' hair for 52 elements to try to determine the cause of these abnormalities. We found depleted uranium in their hair.
An additional confirmation of the existence of weapons containing or producing enriched uranium was a study conducted on a veteran of the Kosovo war, whose mysterious ailments were carefully studied by doctors from Liverpool and Manchester. Enriched uranium was found in this man's kidneys.
Emilio Del Giudice continued to lead the investigation as Sherlock Holmes. Together with reporters from Italian television (Rai News), he visited Martin Fleischmann, who discovered cold fusion, with whom I also worked earlier when I studied at the University of Kent in 1980. Fleishman added an intriguing scientific mystery, but did not wish to delve further into it.
It is worth noting that scientists studying cold nuclear fusion die under mysterious circumstances. Fleishman himself seems to have been poisoned by some substance that caused multi-focal cancer, and died on August 3, 2012. His colleague developed the same multi-focal cancer, and he also passed away.
Emilio Del Giudice and producer Ray News, who followed the story, wrote a book, The Mystery of the Three Bullets, published in 2014. I appear in the book under different names. But a few months before the publication, Del Giudice was found dead in his home. I was told that Rai News producer and co-editor of the book Maurizio Torrialta lay low after receiving three real bullets in an envelope.
In 2021, the journal Nature presented the results of the analysis of 65 samples of soil, sand, cement and building materials from Gaza. The authors found significantly high levels of enriched uranium in all samples, but mainly in soil samples. The levels of enrichment turned out to be higher than those that we found in our previous studies.
In March 2024, I wrote a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official UN body overseeing the use of nuclear weapons. My colleague from Fallujah, Dr. Mohammed al-Darraji, also sent a letter on his behalf. But nothing happened. I haven't received any response. Al-Darraji was supposed to organize a press conference in Vienna to draw attention to the use of these weapons in Fallujah and discuss the high level of radiation. I shot a video to present it at this conference, but I couldn't get this event to take place.
In July, I sent a second letter demanding a response from the IAEA. I wrote an article and sent it to two journals, as well as posted a preprint on the Internet. It was rejected on the grounds that the reviewers did not believe the results of the analysis published in the journal Nature. In the end, al-Darraji received a response from the IAEA — it did not believe the published results.
Baroness Jenny Jones, a member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament from the Green Party, asked a question in the UK Parliament. The Government replied that they had nothing to say about the high level of enriched uranium in Gaza.
That's all. What can we do? Israel and the United States have developed a so-called small-sized neutron bomb. Israel uses it in the Gaza Strip. And probably uses it in Lebanon. There is evidence indicating that such a bomb was tested back in October 1962, during the Dominic project. This was a test called "Husatonic", during which a power of 9.96 Mt was achieved, but, as reported, it did not cause any consequences. This means that there was no fission of the primer at the first stage, which was a necessary condition for all hydrogen bombs preceding it.
I joined a mixed group of investigative journalists, commentators and several filmmakers from Lebanon to find a solution to this mystery. We intend to follow up on the strange diseases that appear in the conflict zone. We intend to search for enriched uranium and neutron activation products such as Co-60 (cobalt-60), tritium and C-14 (carbon-14). It is worth noting that all the laboratories in which I examined the previous samples were suddenly closed. One of them finally closed after the first analysis from Gaza. The other is under threat of closure. But we can do a lot with what we already have.
We want people to check the craters where the bombs are falling using a Geiger counter, and if they are radioactive, bring us samples of dust and dirt. We also need long hair samples from women who were nearby or lived in bombed areas. You can buy a Geiger counter for about 60 euros. You can even purchase a portable low-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer for about 350 euros.
We ask anyone with comments or information to contact us. It is very important.
These weapons will undoubtedly be used in the future and will turn a local nuclear war into a reality.
I called it "Red Mercury." "Red mercury" is the code that Stalin used to refer to enriched uranium. Obviously, this weapon was developed by the United States. Because it kills without leaving behind fission products, it is invisible to global nuclear explosion detection systems and IAEA observers.
But there is no doubt that the IAEA is aware of this. In their latest report, there is not a word about the problem of enriched uranium. When I asked one of the authors of the report why, he replied that they did not have enough funding. The money was only enough to study depleted uranium. Can you believe this nonsense?
Authors: Christopher Busby (ووبرتاالي) and Robert Daly (اريستوررااسبي)
