Some info I collected and don’t want to lose. Example:
Depleted uranium (DU), the radioactive byproduct of uranium enrichment, is in the headlines as the US recently agreed to send 100 Guided Bomb Unit-28 bunker buster bombs containing DU warheads to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon, as reported by Reuters and others.
There is good information near the bottom re
- the murderous health effects of DU that last forever in the aftermath of radioactive warfare
- Canada Pension Plan investment in DU
To generate a list of postings with information about Lockheed Martin’s cluster munitions, enter “CBU” into the “search” box for this blog. (CBU = Cluster Bomb Unit.) An example, Lockheed Martin (Census) in cluster munitions and DU (“Depleted” Uranium). CPP also.
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http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app5/wcmd.html
Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 5: Guided Bombs, WCMD
Lockheed Martin developed and markets the WCMD (Munitions Dispenser) for use with, among others, CBUs
(CBU = Cluster Bomb Unit)
“Combined Effects Munition (“CEM”) system” means any unguided, air-delivered cluster bomb of the 1000-pound class designated by the United States Department of Defense as CBU-87, including but not limited to CBU-87/B, CBU-87(D-2)/B, CBU-87(T-1)/B, CBU-87(T-2)/B, CBU-87(T-3)/B, CBU-87A/B, CBU-87B/B, and CBU-87C/B. Each CEM system consists of a cluster of 202 anti-armor, anti-personnel and incendiary bomblets that disperse over a discrete area and explode upon impact; a tactical munitions dispenser; a proximity sensor; and a shipping and storage container.
Alliant Techsystems Inc. and Aerojet-General Corporation. These defendants have been the only two United States producers of Combined Effects Munition systems.
Lockheed Martin website:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/LongShot/
Thus, Lockheed Martin provides a one-step source for a family of LongShot-equipped standoff weapons – MK82, MK83, LGB, GBU-12, GBU-16, CBU-58, CBU-87, and CBU-97.
http://www.janes.com/extracts/extract/jalw/jalw2709.html
Due to the inaccuracy of CBU-87/B when dropped from higher altitudes, the USAF has developed the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) as an add-on package. Produced by Lockheed Martin, the WCMD kit contains an inertial navigation system and control fins. When modified as a WCMD, a CBU-87/B becomes a CBU-103.
http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/2067.html
Sustainability Investment News
July 26, 2006
Nuns and Priests File Depleted Uranium Bunker Buster Resolution at Three Weapons Companies
by Bill Baue
The resolution goes to vote next week at Alliant Techsystems, and already received more than double the support needed to re-file next year at Lockheed Martin and Textron.
SocialFunds.com — Depleted uranium (DU), the radioactive byproduct of uranium enrichment, is in the headlines as the US recently agreed to send 100 Guided Bomb Unit-28 bunker buster bombs containing DU warheads to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon, as reported by Reuters and others. Shareowner activists are also placing DU on the corporate agenda by filing a new resolution expressing health and environmental concerns and asking for a report from three companies on their involvement with DU. Concern centers on the pyrophoric properties of DU, which burns and loses much of its mass upon impact, dispersing a fine radioactive dust that can be carried long distances by winds or absorbed by soil and groundwater–not to mention human bodies.
The resolution received 6.4 percent support at Lockheed Martin (ticker: LMT) and 9 percent support at Textron (TXT), according to the EthVest database maintained by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responibility (ICCR)–both well over the 3 percent threshold required by the SEC for re-filing next year. The proposal goes to vote next week at Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which manufactures 120 mm rounds containing DU for penetrating tanks and light armor vehicles.
“It’s one thing to make a weapon that ‘does the job’ on the battlefield; it’s another to manufacture and use one that destroys not only tanks, armored personnel carriers and underground bunkers but may also leave a potentially poisonous legacy in the bodies of the people who return to those areas after hostilities have ceased,” said John Celichowski, head of the corporate responsibility program for the Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, which filed the resolution at Alliant along with other ICCR members. “We believe that the choice to use particular weapons in areas that are bound to be inhabited or re-inhabited by civilians raises serious moral questions which need to be addressed by our policy-makers, our armed services, the society they claim to be defending, and the companies that make such weapons.”
“The pyrophoric qualities of these weapons also creates potential risks for our own soldiers,” he told SocialFunds.com.
The resolutions make not only a moral and ethical case, but also a business case against DU.
“The business case against DU centers around the potential liability for human and environmental impacts and damage to the companies’ reputations,” said Valerie Heinonen, a corporate social responsibility consultant to the Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit Charitable Trust, which filed the resolution at Lockheed. “Rather than seeking a market for radioactive waste, the federal government and corporations should work with NGOs to find solutions for long-term storage.”
PROXY Governance, one of the three major proxy advisory firms, recommends voting for the resolution at Alliant
“PROXY Governance acknowledges that there are serious concerns regarding the health effects of using munitions containing depleted uranium (DU),” states PROXY Governance. “While we are not aware of significant litigation involving the health and safety of workers at DU munitions production facilities at this time, the potential for future such litigation exists.”
In fact, Richard David of the UK filed suit against Honeywell (HON) in 2004 claiming adverse health effects from working at a munitions factory during the first Gulf War where DU was used in manufacturing, according to an article in The Observer.
“And while the World Health Organization and others have stated that there is no conclusive medical evidence linking DU to health problems, reports by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights have suggested that the weapons may well be illegal under The Geneva Conventions, The Hague Conventions and other international law,” continues the PROXY Governance report. “Such a finding could complicate efforts by DU weapons manufacturers to defend themselves against potential future litigation involving health effects or environmental clean-up efforts.”
The Alliant board argues in its proxy statement that the company discloses information regarding its military- and defense-related contracting in its SEC filings, but PROXY Governance notes that these filings do not discuss the specific matters brought up in the resolution.
PROXY Governance also recommended voting for the resolution at Lockheed, but against it at Textron, as the company’s board points out in its proxy statement that the company is not involved in DU production and has no plans to be. Both ISS and Glass Lewis recommend voting against the resolution at all three companies.
“We were in conversation with Textron management following the filing of the resolution, but we did not get satisfactory answers and therefore the lead filer, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary decided to leave the resolution on the ballot,” Sister Valerie told SocialFunds.com. “The vote at Textron may lead to further, more satisfactory conversation.”
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NOTE: Any research out of “Sandia Laboratories” is unreliable. ” Lockheed Martin Marietta now owns Sandia Laboratories” (from http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm )
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CPP Supports Depleted Uranium Weapons Production
Posted by: relysem on http://PEJ.org Thursday, April 26, 2007 – 12:00 PM
CPP Supports Depleted Uranium Weapons Production
PEJ News – While many people are aware that damage is being done overseas, most do not know the extent of it, or the degree to which Canadians and the Canadian Pension Plan are complicit in this damage.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of nuclear reactions. When it is produced by nuclear power plants, it is considered radioactive waste. The half-life of depleted uranium is 4.46 billion years. It’s useful in war because it can be converted to one of the densest metals that exists, so it can be used as both armor-piercing bullets, and as a material in the production of body and tank armor.
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When used as a weapon, in ammunition that is spread indiscriminately over country-sides, this radioactive chemical will be a part of the atmosphere for literally billions of years. It has been estimated that 800 tons of Depleted Uranium has been used in Afghanistan, which is the radioactive equivalent of roughly 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. Rain captures the dust clouds, which then contaminates ground water and food sources, making great swaths of land toxic and uninhabitable.
Studies have shown that people living in these areas — inhaling the substance, drinking contaminated water, and eating food grown in contaminated soil — will quickly reach both acute and chronic exposure levels, which can trigger a vast array of health issues, including mutations, reproductive defects and extremely high cancer rates.
In Iraq, doctors at a hospital in Basra, where depleted uranium weapons were used frequently in the first Gulf War (and are being used again now), have noticed an alarming trend in the health and wellness of the children in the area. Charting incidents of children’s illness between 1990 and 2001 shows an incidence increase of 426 per cent for general malignancies, 366 per cent for leukemias and an over 600 per cent increase in birth defects.
This is not a scorched earth policy; it is a toxic earth policy. Military forces are not only destroying life, but creating an environment that is inhospitable to life for billions of years to come.
There is action that we as individuals can take. But before I can give you that good news, I have to hit you with one large piece of bad news first: Canada, and Canadian taxpayers, are supporting the production of these weapons.
Through the investment of both the Canada Pension Plan and the BC Pension Plan, as well as provincial plans for other provinces, funds are being invested in companies that produce depleted uranium weapons and delivery systems. BC’s investment company alone has almost 200 million sunk just into depleted uranium weapon producers (Lockheed Martin; Texas Instruments; Boeing; Northrup/Grumman; General Dynamics, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin; and General Electric) and that’s not counting the many other weapons and munitions producers that the public’s money is invested in who are profiting off of and perpetuating this cycle of war and violence.
Now, I know I wasn’t consulted on this use of my money, and none of you were either. The CPP is not an optional program; everyone contributes to this, and these contributions are going to fund corporations that destroy the environment.