Dimona employees 'forced to drink uranium

The Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel garners new controversy after revelations that former staff members 'were forced to drink uranium' as part of an experiment.

In a recently-filed lawsuit, Julius Malick, who worked in Dimona for over 15 years, explained how he was ordered by his superiors to take part in a toxic experiment on five workers.

During the experiment, Malick and his fellow colleagues were forced to drink juice containing uranium and were then asked for a urine sample, which was then analyzed to determine how uranium is excreted from the body through urine.

According to Malick, the 1998 experiment was conducted without medical supervision and the dire health risks had not been explained to participants.

Under the Declaration of Helsinki on human experimentation, employers are obliged to obtain written consent from the workers and warn them of risks or side effects of the research.

Malick said he was threatened and forced into early retirement by the former director of the facility, Yitzhak Gurevich, and the director of human resources, Gary Amal.

He is now suing the Dimona facility for thousands of dollars in compensation, reported Haaretz.

The Israel Atomic Energy Commission has rejected his claims, arguing that the Dimona facility "has the safety and health of its workers as its highest priority."

Malick, however, begged to differ. In his lawsuit, he further explains systematic maltreatment as well as a sheer lack of safety and medical services for Dimona employees, who had been exposed to great amounts of radioactivity.

He said he was declared persona non grata after he tied to improve the poor safety standards in the reactor.

Located in the Negev desert, Dimona houses Israel's nuclear arsenal and is widely believed to be where around 300 nuclear warheads are stored.

US soldiers kill 3 Iraqi children: Report

American troops have reportedly shot dead three children in northern Iraq, as the US-led invasion continues to cost more civilian lives in the volatile country.

The children -- all under twelve -- were killed while they were shepherding in the northern Iraqi town of al-Tarmia on Saturday, the Iraq News Agency (Al-dar al-Araqiya) reported without giving further detail.

The US military is yet to comment on the incident.

Previously the US forces had claimed that the Iraqi children are being paid by insurgents to attack their convoys or assist the attackers in some capacity, placing them 'in harm's way'.

Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, US forces have reportedly arrested dozens of Iraqis in the town of Abu Ghraib, 32 km (20 mi) west of the capital Baghdad on the same day, the report added.

The arrests follow a three-day-long operation by US troops in the same district, which has forced many Iraqi youths out of the town for fear of being taken into the notorious Abu Ghraib prison camps.

The attacks come more than a month after US troops' withdrawal from Iraqi cities and towns under a security pact between Baghdad and Washington that requires Washington to pull out its troops from the Iraqi soil by the end of 2011.

Shortly before the US military's urban pullout, some six years after its invasion of Iraq in 2003, violence sharply rose with 437 Iraqis killed in June marking the bloodiest month in an almost a year-long period.

Worried Arabs seek to shed light on Israeli nukes

The Arab League (AL) calls on the European Union to put its weight behind their efforts to compel Israel to open up its secretive nuclear program to international inspections.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa sent a letter to the Swedish and other European foreign ministers to urge them to back an Arab resolution entitled "Israel's Nuclear Capabilities."

Sweden currently holds the Presidency of the European Union.

According to reports, the request will be put up for a vote at next month's general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Israeli government began building its controversial Dimona nuclear reactor in the southern town of Dimona in 1958. The reactor is the centerpiece of Israel's illegal nuclear weapons program.

Israel is reportedly the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East which has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel, believed to be the sixth-largest nuclear power, maintains a policy known as 'nuclear ambiguity.' Tel Aviv neither confirms nor denies the possession of nuclear weapons.

Muslim nations consider the Zionist regime as a nuclear threat.

Sayyed Nasrallah: Bomb Beirut or Dahye, We Can Bomb Tel Aviv and Any Other Spot

Hezbollah marked three years of Divine Victory over Israel on Friday in Beirut’s southern suburb.
Political figures attended the gathering including representatives of President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, MP Michel Aoun and MP Walid Jumblatt, along with party chiefs, ministers, MPs and Ambassadors.

Tens of thousands of people also took part in the ceremony and welcomed with cheers and tears Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who delivered a speech through a giant screen.

Sayyed Nasrallah welcomed the crowd and paid tribute to the martyrs, injured and those whose homes and properties were destroyed during the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.

“Much has been said about this war, its causes, motives, background as well as its course and lessons. There will always be much more to say because what we went through was an epic and a miracle made in Lebanon and by the Lebanese people. One of the main lessons that should be taught is: what if the resistance was defeated in Lebanon? I would like to give priority (in my speech) to the current Israeli threats and the next stage. I would like to begin with reading a small text by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu pertaining to the July war. He said shortly after the war, and before he became Prime Minister:
‘The Six Day War enabled Israel to survive and make peace agreements. The 1967 war signaled the transformation of a state with many question marks surrounding it into an unbeatable state that expanded its width from 12kms to 70kms. We were able to control two mountains and the Jews will no longer be thrown into the sea. Arabs felt they had to acknowledge Israel and then we signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and we had indications that we can go for reconciliation with the Palestinians. However, since the unilateral pullout from Lebanon in 2000 and the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and today, after the Second Lebanon War, the bearings have changed dramatically. It is evident that Israel today is no longer an unbeatable state and question marks – from friends and foes alike - on the survival of the state of Israel have returned.’
In the past few weeks, there had been media and political uproar in Israel supported by some US and Western stances, particularly British stances. We do not believe that these threats and all this uproar indicate an imminent Israeli war on Lebanon. These threats have other goals, including psychological war. This uproar is also aimed, according to Israeli reports, at the efforts to form the Lebanese government through warning against the participation of Hezbollah in the Cabinet. It is clear that the Israelis will be vexed if a national unity government were formed in Lebanon. Another goal behind this uproar is the attempt to bring back discord to Lebanon. This is what the Israelis frankly said but the general atmosphere in Lebanon is positive regardless of some voices. A third goal is the endeavor to amend the mandate of the UNIFIL. The incident in the town of Khirbet Selem happened shortly before the release of the UN Secretary General report over the implementation of UN resolution 1701. The Americans and the Israeli raised the issue of amending the UNIFIL’s mandate. The UNIFIL has one mission in south Lebanon which is to back the Lebanese army and other legitimate forces and therefore, the UNIFIL cannot have checkpoints or raid houses. They wanted to amend its mandate to transform this force into a multi-national force as suggested back in 2006. This goal also failed due to the official stance in Lebanon that firmly rejected any amendment.
Another goal is to reopen the file of the arms of the resistance and its power. They incited the international community and pressured Lebanon, Syria and Iran and they threatened the region with war. We do not make comments on the armament of the resistance, but I would like to tell our dear Lebanese people that this precious land lies next to an aggressive and avarice entity. In a world ruled by the law of the jungle, not by the international law, one must take advantage of all past experiences so as not to be sold in the international market of politics when the right price is paid. Any people are protected by their unity, will and determination to live with dignity.”

Sayyed Nasrallah said that those assessing and studying the July war should “search for what we are made of” before researching on arms, combat formations, strategies and tactics.
“In one of Imam Moussa Sadr’s words to the people of south Lebanon, when he was urging them to resist Israeli aggressions, he said: we will fight you with stones and with our teeth…Ultimately, those who have the determination can fight and win…I hereby repeat my words with much more confidence than before: As I used to promise you victory, I promise you victory again, God willing.”

The Hezbollah Secretary General pointed out that the Israeli psychological war bares a negative indication. “Shaul Mofaz said that Hezbollah has become three times stronger today than in 2006. He is seeking help from the world, but what message is he conveying to the people living in his entity? Ehud Barak says that Hezbollah’s missile arsenal has grown and today it has the ability to strike Tel Aviv and any spot in Israel. On the one hand he is instigating the international community against us, but on the other hand, he is telling the whole Israeli population that in the next war, you will all flee, not only Keryat Shmona and Haifa residents. In the past few weeks, Netanyahu retracted the threats and said that this was a media storm, why? Because settlers expressed resentment and tourists started to flee out of northern Israel.”

Sayyed Nasrallah ruled out an imminent war but said that in case Israel waged war, there are two options. “To surrender, disarm ourselves and become weak; this is out of the question. The second option is to be ready and to consolidate our power factors to prevent war; and in this case if war were waged on us we will win it. Can we prevent an Israeli war on Lebanon? Yes we can. Can we stop Israel from thinking about waging war on Lebanon? Yes we can by having a deterrent force. In Israel, it is not easy any more to take a decision to go to war with Lebanon. The objective of any coming war will be to eradicate the resistance, but can this current Israeli army and this Israeli government wage a war to eradicate the resistance in Lebanon? They cannot. We have been hearing about the Dahye (Beirut’s southern suburb) doctrine or the Dahye strategy based on certain ideas, but we have not yet heard any response on this, therefore it is our right to tell the Israelis that if you bomb Dahye or Beirut, we will bomb Tel Aviv. We have the ability to hit any city or town in your entity. Carry out as much drills as you want, develop your tanks’ armors and train your brigades; they will be crushed in our towns, villages, valleys and hills. There will be new surprises, so they have to think a million times before waging war on us.”


"According to my knowledge of Israelis, when they jabber they are not to be feared. We should be vigilant when they are quiet, like snakes," his eminence said.

Sayyed Nasrallah touched on the issue of Mossad agents in Lebanon. He said Israel cannot do without spies to gather information. “On behalf of the martyrs, I demand that security forces complete what they started. What was accomplished recently is not enough. There is no spy-free town, village and city in Lebanon. We have heard something about tolerance and leniency with regards to collaborators. This is unacceptable and the state institutions are responsible to deal with this file.”

His eminence stressed the 2006 war foiled the most dangerous US-Israeli plot in the region. “Since August 14, 2006, we haven’t heard anything about the new Mideast. Our domestic and regional state is better than our state back in 2006.”
Sayyed Nasrallah paid tribute to the martyrs and their suffering families and stressed “unity in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq is our power factor. Our strength lies in our resistance and the future is our; we make it with our own hands, with the blood of our martyrs, with our faith and belief. This is the lesson of this historic victory.”