Copyright (c) 1999

Subject: -- I am ashamed of what my country is doing in Yugoslavia -- STOP CASSINI #115

Date: April 23rd, 1999

Today's subjects:

• I am ashamed of what my country is doing in Yugoslavia
• Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium [DU] Weapons
• Chemical Warfare in Yugoslavia
• D. U. Update on El Al crash in Amsterdam, 1992
• Why truth wins over fiction (and lies)
• The new Delta III goes nowhere (again)
• WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP THE WAR
• WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP NASA'S CASSINI
• Subscription information

I am ashamed of what my country is doing in Yugoslavia

April 23rd, 1999

Last night we bombed the state-run television station in downtown Belgrade.

Freedom does not come out of the barrel of a gun, and cannot be found under the cross-hairs of missile guidance systems. Push-button warfare does not create a lasting and just peace and provides absolutely no moral authority to prosecute a war. How do you teach a person to fight such a war? Simple: You teach them to follow orders. There is virtually ZERO chance that our troops on the "front lines" (often, cozy rooms deep within the Pentagon) are reading these words, ZERO chance that our troops know how many Americans hate this war, ZERO chance that our troops even know that their "highly successful" (So we say!) air campaign is doing more to galvanize the Serbian people against us than anything else -- and rightfully so -- would you like being bombed? We have hit civilians many times now. We have poisoned their air and their water -- that surely kills civilians, and will for generations after the war is over. We have destroyed their infrastructure to where their hospitals cannot function. And yet we claim we are trying to avoid collateral damage! There is ZERO chance our push-button warriors have any idea what they are doing. Today we had them bomb the Serbian Television station in downtown Belgrade (located right next to a church).

Why? Supposedly to stop the people of Yugoslavia from hearing Milosevic's lies. I too have been accused of lying, Mr. President. Are you going to bomb me?

I wonder if it was to stop our own troops from hearing the people of Yugoslavia telling their truths? For if they were lying, who cares? Lies do not stand up to truths, Mr. President. You don't need to stop the lies by blowing up Serbian Television, Mr. President. Just tell the truth. That's all you have to do. Let them lie. It will not hurt the truth. It will not hurt our cause, whatever it is. But what if much of what came out of that station was the truth? I saw Serbian television, translated into English and shown on CSPAN. Sure, it had lies. And it had truths, undeniable truths that showed the will of the Serbian people, united against the NATO bombardment. The unity of the Serbian Parliament -- evil or not, it was in unison. Serbian Television showed us this. But surely, for military/political advantage, you would not want us to know these things. So is that really why you bombed the broadcast center? To hide the truth from America? Because that is one result of what you have done. You have terrorized media representatives everywhere. That violates every principal this country was founded on. You might now win all the battles, but you have lost all hope of moral victory. You have committed an atrocity.

Maybe the Serbian people need to see the mass graves their soldiers are throwing warm Albanian bodies into. Maybe videos showing the results of "ethnic cleansing" need to be broadcast on CNN so that all the world can see what the Serbs is doing (such videos have reportedly recently been smuggled out of Yugoslavia at great risk to those involved). These can be posted on the Internet, at U. S. Government web sites.

If we can watch for hours as American children run past their own dead schoolmates, hands up and on live national T.V., then surely, Mr. President, America is ready for the whole truth about Yugoslavia. Surely our troops can withstand hearing Milosevic's lies, Mr. President. Surely we can be shown in graphic detail, what is happening that you oppose so fervently, that would make you commit atrocities of your own to stop. Surely, Mr. President, you can justify this war.

But so far, you have not done so. Not THIS war. Yes, we want Milosevic stopped. And quickly. This is not quick, this is not working, this is not right. A peace settlement can be achieved or a ground war must begin. And America must be told the truth about our options. Even if our war is justified, how can it be justifiable to have soldiers who cannot possibly be harmed do all the killing, in such an indescriminate way, from armchairs? How can it be justifiable to damage Yugoslavia's ecosystem for generations to come, which is what D. U. weapons do and destruction of chemical plants and so forth does? How can it be justifiable to lie to the American people just because Milosevic is lying to the Serbs?

When are you going to learn? Didn't you watch the children being interviewed as they came out, permanently shell-shocked, as are we all?

Mr. President, I have great hope for this country. I saw the next generation, which must have gone into that school that day with all the maturity of the similarly-aged youngsters that live around my own neighborhood, come out, hands up and horrified, and yet through their instant and irrepressible and unstoppable grief, I saw heros emerge, one by one, coming out by the scores and by the hundreds. Mature, American heros. Woman and men America can be proud of. If what we saw in Littleton after the horror is any indication of the moral fiber of this country, Mr. President, do NOT fear our youth because of this incident. Love our youth, Mr. President, for the vast majority of them are great, great citizens and wonderful, adorable people. People who can stand to hear the truth, the whole truth, the sickening, awful truth, whatever it may be.

We are sick of your lies, Mr. President. And Mr. Vice President Al Gore, we are sick of your lies too. Right the wrongs about the environment, Mr. Gore. Tell the truth about radiation, Mr. Gore. Tell us the things your father never told us. Do not perpetuate his lies about nuclear space policies any more!

And Mr. President, do not look for more security guards and metal detectors on high school campuses as a solution to whatever is wrong there. It will not heighten security or lower the stress felt around the country. Yet this very morning, that is exactly what you called for in response to the horror in Littleton. That is not what we need. What we need is just more of what America was founded on: Freedom, Truth, Justice for all. Even for Belgrade journalists. Everyone.

Russell D. Hoffman,
Founder and Editor,
STOP CASSINI newsletter

Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium [DU] Weapons

Depleted Uranium is being used at the estimated rate of scores of tons each day in Yugoslavia. If the ground war begins, its use will probably go up tenfold. This is an assault on the environment. It is a crime against humanity, as we have often stated on these pages (See newsletters #74, #51 and others).

INCOMING EMAIL (PART I)

From: Hans Karow
Reply-To: "core@vip.net"
Subject: DU
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 18:33:31 -0700

Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium [DU] Weapons
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/10957

Rosalie Bertell, Ph. D., GNSH, Canadian Epidemiologist, whose specialty is in higher mathematics, with applications in the radiobiology and the biomedical sciences says:

Depleted (DU) uranium is one of the largest categories of radioactive waste produced for the nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor industry. It is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter which is very dangerous when taken internally.

When used in war, the DU bursts into flame from the impact when it hits a target. It can pierce tanks and armoured cars, releasing inside of them a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. It can be stored in liver, kidney, bone or other tissues, again for years, irradiating all of the delicate tissues located near its storage place. It can effect the blood, which is the basis of our immune system, and do damage to the renal system as it is eventually excreted in the urine. It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which have been initiated by other carcinogens.

Dr. Bertell refers to a 1998 WHO study of increasing cancer rates, especially leukemia in young children, in southern Iraq where most of the war took place and notes that thousands of veterans of the Iraq War are recognized as seriously ill with an unknown syndrome, and, she says, we have been able to document DU in their urine as late as 7 or 8 years after the war. There is no natural source of DU to explain this phenomena!

It is imperative that we all denounce this radiation and toxic chemical warfare! It has now been used by the US and Britain against Iraq and in Bosnia. It is now being used in Kosovo (NATO announcement in Europe, 30 March 1999). It has been condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Tribunal (August 1996 Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities). The Human Rights Commission has requested that the Secretary General prepare a written report on DU and certain other weapons of mass destruction (Resolution 1997/36, which also established a UN Rapporteur to take over the study of DU and other weapons of mass destruction on behalf of the UN). The damage being done will not only cause incredible and unending suffering to today's victims, but the genetic damage it may cause can be passed on to their offspring. Such weapons and war itself need to be condemned as utter barbarianism!

This is certainly not to be interpreted as condoning so called ethnic cleansing or any of the nationalistic actions of the Yugoslav government. She concludes: " This Kosovo action is resulting from deep seated conflicting ideas of "World Order" - that proposed by NATO's vision of itself as a world police force, and that of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) which sees security rising out of honest cooperation and legal resolution of conflicting opinions."

END OF INCOMING EMAIL (PART I)

Chemical Warfare in Yugoslavia

While we continue to deplore the growing and indisputable evidence of CONTINUED ATROCITIES -- as reported in utterly convincing articles in the New York Times and elsewhere -- of both wholesale and selective slaughter of their Albanian countrymen by Milosevic's brutal henchmen -- of taking out the intellectuals, the doctors, the Albanians of wealth first -- of raping the woman for the genetic effect such acts will have on the gene pool -- of lying to the people of Belgrade and the rest of Yugoslavia about what their own sons are doing as members of Milosevic's troops -- we deplore all this.

But we deplore Clinton even more. Why more? Because he leads a greater nation -- mine. But this man is not fit to lead any nation at war. He is not fit to lead any nation at peace. He cannot explain the attack last night on "Milosevic's propaganda machine" in any reasonable terms. He spoke this morning (April 23rd, 1999), in response to the atrocity in Littleton, Colorado, about funding for several thousand security guards.

Yet less than an hour later, also live this morning, the Principal of Columbine High School, Frank DeAngelis, explained quite simply, that even if the National Guard had been waiting at the door, it wouldn't have stopped the carnage. These boys had come prepared for what they wanted to do. A security guard would simply have been their first casualty. And we do not wish to live in a fortress, nor be forced to walk the streets defenseless. We wish you to get at the deeper cause of such madness. The easy availability of such lethal weaponry. The failure to identify the warning signs in these individuals. But there is nothing wrong with America's youth in general. They are wonderful. On any given day, Any High School, USA could have obituaries like this one:

DANIEL ROHRBOUGH, 15

Helped in his father's electronics business and worked on family farms in Kansas during the summer. Enjoyed computer games, stereos and home theater systems. Shot while holding an exit door open for fleeing students.

(From North County Times, April 23rd, 1999, page A-11).

No, Mr. President. The answer is not more bombs on Belgrade, nor is it more guards, and more security fences. The answer lies in the cessation of lies. YOU must stop lying to the country. YOU must stop the media from lying to the country, by having your staff correct every falsehood, at every step. Your staff includes, of course, every paid or unpaid government employee, every contractor to the government, and even every citizen. If Milosevic's television station broadcasts lies, that is exactly what you want them to do! If they lie, the truth will come out anyway, and the truth will demolish the lies, just as we have demolished, on these pages, many of the lies about Cassini. If Milosevic's people are being lied to, then don't just drop leaflets, drop Internet-capable (solar powered) handheld PC's for people to learn the truth with. And for God's sakes, STOP BOMBING THE INFRASTRUCTURE. Stop bombing the chemical plants, the hydroelectric dams, the bridges, and most of all the infrastructure of the press, which you hit last night killing at least nine people. If those people were lying to the Yugoslavian people, you can disprove them. But what you did, and the reasons NATO has given for doing it, are utterly unAmerican. Stop this phase of the war. It's sickening. Stop using D.U. weapons. Stop being a bully.

You too, cannot hide the lies. You can pretend there is no truth in what I have said here, but that does not change the facts.

-rdh

INCOMING EMAIL (received April 23rd, 1999) (PART II)

APRIL 14, 1999

Subject: End Eco-destruction Yugoslav Scientists Plead
Author/Origin: Environment News Service (ENS)
URL : For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr99/1999L-04-14-03.html

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, April 14, 1999 (ENS) - Scientists are warning that the NATO bombs being dropped on Yugoslavia are destroying not just military targets but the entire ecology of the region. One of the healthiest areas in Europe is turning into an environment hazardous for human health as land and water are being irreversibly polluted, they report.

Especially vulnerable are the underground waters, says [Dr.] Momir Komatina, author of 12 books and over 260 scientific essays on subterranean waters. "The pollution of water resources in the wide area of NATO bombing is not damaging just for our country but for the Balkans and a part of the South Europe as well, especially for the countries in the Black Sea area.... He says Yugoslavia is full of numerous aquifers containing major or minor subterranean water reserves including mineral, thermo-mineral and top-quality boiling water.

The press release also quotes Dr. Radoje, agronomist and member of the Programme Council of The New Green Party in Belgrade: "By burning down enormous quantities of naptha and its derivatives more than a hundred highly toxic chemical compounds that pollute water, air and soil are released. When these three elementary conditions of life are endangered, the basis of life for all the people on the Balkan Peninsula as well as those in the neighbouring regions is also in danger".

Dr. Radoja [also] points out that "the NATO bombing" ...[will prevent ] "the planting of 2.5 million hectares of land..". "The lack of fuel for agricultural machines will have catastrophic results, because it leads to hunger of the entire population. When you add to this the poisoning of the water, air, and soil catastrophe becomes a cataclysm".

END OF INCOMING EMAIL (PART II)

D. U. Update on El Al crash in Amsterdam, 1992

The New York Times reports today (as seen in the San Diego Union-Tribune, page A-14) that an official Dutch Parliamentary Commission has published its conclusions on the El Al cargo plane crash which killed 43 people in a suburb of Amsterdam, Holland in 1992.

The commission's report did not conclude whether chemicals used to make Sarin Gas or its components are the cause of the complaints lodged by so far more than 1,000 people who lived near the accident or worked on the rescue/cleanup operations. (And unmentioned in the NYT article, note that most cancers would only just be beginning to develop.)

Indeed, a full study of the health effects has never actually been done. However, according to the NYT article, "the [Dutch commission's report] ... linked the ailments to the sulfur dioxide, metals, dioxins, asbestos and DEPLETED URANIUM released during the fire" (our emphasis). Also, the NYT report stated that the Dutch report also said that: "civil servants did not pass on crucial information to government ministers, including the fact that the plane's ballast included carcinogenic depleted uranium."

-- rdh

Why truth wins over fiction (and lies)

Is there a law of nature which says that truth must win over lies or fiction? Indeed there is! It is the law of the smallest common denominator. It is the law of averages. It is Murphy's law. It is the fact -- the indisputably true fact -- that truth is always at least one step simpler than a lie is, that gives it its power. For if given a chance, people will grasp the truth more often than the lie, because it makes the pieces of the puzzle fit together, but the lies do not ever fit properly together. That is why truth can win out in America: Because here, the truth can be heard. And it is always simpler, and fits together with other known facts in a more logical way, than a lie.

This country was founded on the principle that the people are smart enough to govern themselves. The people of this country are now fed up and demand a change in our behavior in Yugoslavia, and in our media, and in our government. That is the indisputable truth. And if change is coming, whether from Y2K-related nuclear accidents causing a global realization of the dangers of low level radiation, or whether because of what is happening in Kosovo, or what happened in Littleton, or Oklahoma City, or even Waco, or because of the so-called end of the so-called Cold War (this "ending" sure has ME on the edge of my seat these days!) or because of sex scandals because of people who can't keep their mouth's shut, or whatever history defines as the roots of the global awakening, let it be recorded that America entered into a new age of truth, where it did not deny its faults, but did not pretend that her faults were her strengths.

The new Delta III goes nowhere (again)

At what should have been the moment of liftoff, nothing happened this morning. "Faulty computer system", they said. Ho hum.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP THE WAR:

EMAIL PRESIDENT CLINTON!

president@whitehouse.gov

Send him this newsletter and tell him (in your own words) how you feel! (You must include additional comments, and your real name and physical address, for your emails to be of any effect. Tell him about yourself, or include your resume or something, so that he understands both how typical we all are, and how unique we each are.)

Whatever you do, use email ASAP to tell the president you are fed up with this war TODAY and you want a clean fight, a fair fight, a publicly debated fight, and not this criminal offense that would violate any reasonable "GENEVA CONVENTION" rules, if those things even work for the atrocities being committed with D. U. and the bombing of chemical fertilizer plants and the like, and the clear and undeniable assault on the civilians that we are committing (whilst claiming, each and every day, to be avoiding collateral damage as much as possible!)

Let the president know, TODAY, that Milosevic's wrongs will not make Clinton's wrongs become rights.

-rdh

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP THE CASSINI EARTH FLYBY:

SIGN THE PETITION!
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/cass1999.htm

CANCEL CASSINI by JUNE 24th, 1999!!!!

To Cancel Cassini start by asking NASA for the 1995 Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission and all subsequent related documents (on paper, please!). Tell them you need it IMMEDIATELY (members of the world press should do this too). All citizens of the world are ENTITLED to these documents because of the global threat Cassini poses. Here's where to get information:

Cassini Public Information
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011

Tell them Russell Hoffman, founder and editor of the STOP CASSINI newsletter, sent you. I bet they love to hear that!

NASA states that they do not have the resources anymore to answer most emails they receive. Liars! They have $13 billion dollars to play with. They can answer the public's questions. At least, ask them one specific question: How many letters did they get opposing Cassini today? (And tell them you oppose it too!) If each reader asks them that...

Here's NASA's email address:

comments@www.hq.nasa.gov

Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address: daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov

Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html

(Note that it looks like possibly a temporary URL assignment, but you can always start at http://www.nasa.gov.)

They imply at the web site that written comments are more likely to get answered -- quicker than emailed comments! Someone should welcome them to the 1990's before it's too late.

Long time readers know lots of questions to ask them! Ask them why they don't link to our web site. Ask them why they haven't got rid of Daniel Goldin, the glassy-eyed fool. Ask them why they haven't sent you YOUR copy of the 1995 EIS for the Cassini mission! Ask them anything, but demand an answer! YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.

Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.

president@whitehouse.gov vice-president@whitehouse.gov

Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.

AND IN CONCLUSION...

Please send any news directly to the editor at the email address given below.

Please post these newsletters EVERYWHERE! You can -- and should -- send them to news media too! Please tell your friends and neighbors and Internet buddies to subscribe! These words can have power, but only if they are passed on to many others!

Thanks for reading,

Sincerely,
Russell D. Hoffman
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

Founder & Editor
STOP CASSINI Newsletter -- over 100 issues of mirth, merriment, and mind-numbingly depressing facts about NASA and other horrors

Webmaster
STOP CASSINI Web Site
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm

I don't know how it is in your country, but in our country, at least we have this:

Amendment One... "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble..."

Written in U.S.A.

Welcome new subscribers!

Next issue (#116)
Previous issue (#114)

CASSINI TABLE OF CONTENTS

************************ *** Subscription information *************************

To subscribe, email the editor at rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com and state: SUBSCRIBE STOP CASSINI NEWSLETTER Please include a personal message of any length and subject matter. Thank you!

To unsubscribe email me and say UNSUBSCRIBE STOP CASSINI NEWSLETTER

Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically. Please distribute these newsletters EVERYWHERE!!!

********* CANCEL CASSINI BY JUNE 24TH, 1999! *****

CANCEL CASSINI

The Animated Software Company

rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com