The Foreign Office continues to send out its standard dissembling letter on Iraq. Dozens of copies have been forwarded to me by members of the public bemused or angered by the contempt in which they are clearly held by the civil servants responsible.
Some letters begin, “Dear – – – – -“; others use first names or misspelt surnames without a prefix. The ignorance of Asian names is striking. Many are signed by one Jaimie Cooper, a junior official with no specialist knowledge of Iraq. His is merely a name with which to brush off people, many of whom have taken the trouble to analyse lies that would make David Irving blush.
To suggest, for example, that “there is no credible research data” that links the use of depleted uranium with the sevenfold increase in cancer in southern Iraq is Irvingesque. The Atomic Energy Authority has quoted calculations of “500,000 potential deaths” in Kuwait alone if a fraction of DU dust was inhaled. As long ago as 1943, the effect of DU dust in the lung was documented by the US government. In 1993, the Ministry of Defence admitted that it was “aware of the hazards of depleted uranium” and, with the US Defence Department, made videotapes for training British and American troops. These left little doubt of the risks, but were never released. What makes the Foreign Office deceitful in
— source johnpilger.com | johnpilger.com | 1 May 2000