How 6,000 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted September 17, 2008.

Questions remain about how depleted uranium waste from the first Gulf
War was transfered, and whether health risks were posed.

On April 26, 2008, the BBC Alabama arrived in Longview, Washington
carrying 6700 tons of Kuwaiti sand. The sand had become contaminated
with depleted uranium when U.S. military vehicles and munitions caught
fire at Doha Army base in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. The
depleted uranium was being repatriated. The sand was a gift of the
Kuwaiti government.

So was the cost of repatriation. Neither government will discuss just
how much the tab was.

Mike Wilcox, vice president of the International Longshoremen's and
Warehousemen's Union local 21, told the Longview Daily News that
initially he had been "concerned about the safety of longshoremen and
the entire community when he heard a shipment of depleted uranium was
coming into Longview."

Zaroc Stone wrote:

So fucking what?

--
not too random uselessnet weirdness:

Bill Shatzer wrote:

"And over 4,000 Americans have paid with their lives for that little
adventure. Plus a half a trillion dollars in national treasure

You might compare that with the number of lives lost on 9-11. Or the
economic injury incurred from that event.

It would have been cheaper in both lives and money to just suffer
another 9-11 every six or seven years.

Peace and justice,"

Baxter blurts out a plaintive call for Viagra:

"At my age, I don't need balls. I'm done with the procreation stuff."