ISIS has 40 kg of nuclear material

This was my first reaction too. And they said on the radio, 'only' 40 kg!!

ISIS and Al Nusra Just Got Their Hands on 88 Pounds of Uranium - No Big Deal Says Washington

The Uranium that ISIS now possesses is not suitable for a nuclear bomb, but there are other ways to use radioactive material as a weapon.

SCG News

10 July, 2014

Yesterday the Iraqi government announced a startling new development: ISIS has managed to make off with 88 pounds of uranium from Mosul University.

According to CNN two U.S. officials said on Wednesday that "the small amounts of uranium aren't enriched or weapons-grade, prompting only minimal concern."

Minimal concern?

One has to wonder how it is that a extremist group that has made a name for itself by conducting mass executions across Iraq and Syria getting a hold of almost 90 pounds of uranium is of minimal concern (especially when you consider it in the context of the hissy fit the U.S. State Depart has been throwing over Iran's peaceful use of nuclear energy).

This isn't enriched uranium mind you, so it wouldn't be suitable for making a nuclear bomb, but it would do just fine for a dirty bomb (or bombs). A dirty bomb is a weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives with the goal of irradiating an area. Though officially such a weapon has never been used (the U.S. military's extensive use of depleted uranium ammunition apparently doesn't count) the scenario has been thoroughly studied.

Most experts agree that a dirty bomb would not actually cause a large number of deaths. It would however be devastating to an economy and would have a significant psychological impact on a population. Considering the fact that ISIS already does everything in their power to terrorize anyone who doesn't agree with them (including posting graphic videos of executions online), it is only logical to assume that they will at least try to misuse this uranium. Whether they have the technical know how to accomplish this is another question altogether.

Now I'm not writing about dirty bombs to hype people up with fear. You're far more likely to be killed by a bee sting or a car crash regardless of what ISIS does. However the nonchalant reaction by the U.S. government is odd to say the least, and is strikingly out of sync with their typical fear mongering.

Perhaps this strange response is a reflection of the U.S. government's uncomfortable ties to ISIS. After less than 6 months of being ostracized by the leadership of their parent organization, Al Qaeda, ISIS has recently joined forces with Al Nusra (Al Nusra is Al Qaeda's official branch in Syria), and as we've pointed out repeatedly, the so called "moderate" rebels that Washington is funding and arming have gone on record to say that they regularly conduct joint operations with Al Qaeda, and do not consider the group an enemy. Put two and two together and it should be obvious that there is no way that Washington can arm these groups without some of these weapons ending up in the hands of Al Nusra and ISIS

If you want some perspective about who these ISIS/Al Nusra characters are watch the video below. WARNING it shows a mass execution, so don't click it if you are easily disturbed or have children in the room.

So far the U.S. government's attempts at framing the crisis in Iraq have not gone well. While the corporate media continues to provide steady cover, this is no longer enough to maintain control of the narrative. Washington's three year campaign to take down Assad and the countless reports (and footage) of atrocities being committed by their pet rebels (including the sarin gas attacks which they got caught attempting to frame the Syrian government with), has turned the issue into an Achilles heel.

So now those rebels have uranium. No big deal.

Uranium mine spill

Uranium mine spill near Jabiru, Northern Territory, locals fear for Kakadu National Park

There has been a serious spill of contaminated slurry at a uranium mine near Jabiru in the Northern Territory.

ABC,

7 December, 2013

The Ranger mine's operator Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) said a tank in the processing area of the mine failed about 1:00am.

Workers discovered a hole in the side of the tank and were evacuated before the tank burst and "a mixture of slurry escaped".

The mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park and is located about 230 kilometres east of Darwin.

Traditional owner groups said they are "sick with worry" about the potential environment impact, but ERA spokesman Tim Eckersley said there is no environmental emergency.

"They evacuated the area and at about 1:00am the tank basically split at the bottom and the processing slurry, which is a mixture of mud and water, has spilled out the bottom of the tank.

"That's the beginning of our processing operations, so it's a mixture of ground-up uranium ore and acid."

He said the material mostly spilled onto compacted earth, tarmac and drains.

"It's very impervious material so there's very little chance of it leaking into the soil there."

The company said earlier in a statement that the slurry moved outside the containment area, but was captured and contained on-site.

"As the material was contained within the processing area there is no impact on the environment surrounding the Ranger Project Area."

Investigation begins as anti-nuclear campaigners slam company

Federal Environment Minister Minister Greg Hunt has ordered an immediate clean-up and investigation.

A spokesman for the Minister said the leak has been contained and will have no impact on Kakadu National Park.

The Northern Territory Environment Centre is calling for an immediate halt to operations at the mine.

The centre estimates around 1 million litres of acidic radioactive material spilled from the processing tank.

Anti-nuclear campaigner Lauren Mellor said it is the third safety breach by the ERA in a month.

"Just within this month we've had an incident where a controlled vehicle was able to leave a secure area of the mine and was half way down the Arnhem Highway before it was located.

"We've had four barrels found in the Rural Area in Darwin, four barrels used to transport uranium were discarded with no explanation."

Traditional owners call for audit of mine

The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC), which represents the Mirarr traditional owners of the area, says this is one of the worst nuclear incidents in Australian history and has called for an audit of the site's facilities.

"People living just a few kilometres downstream from the mine don't feel safe," GAC chief executive Justin O'Brien said.

"How can we trust the assurances of a company which has repeatedly failed to safely manage this highly toxic material? What may happen next?"

The ERA said no-one was injured during the incident.

It is not yet known how long it will take for work to resume at the site.

The company has applied to the Federal Government for a large underground expansion of the mine, called the Three Deeps project. Traditional owners have not yet given their approval.

Australia's role in the war machine

John Pilger, along with Robert Fisk and Chris Hedges is one of my journalistic heroes

Australia’s Uranium Bonanza: Making the World a More Dangerous Place

The Eager Role of Julia Gillard

John Pilger

Global Research,

24 October, 2012

The Australian parliament building reeks of floor polish. The wooden floors shine so virtuously they reflect the cartoon-like portraits of prime ministers, bewigged judges and viceroys. Along the gleaming white, hushed corridors, the walls are hung with Aboriginal art: one painting after another as in a monolithic gallery, divorced from their origins, the irony brutal. The poorest, sickest, most incarcerated people on earth provide a façade for those who oversee the theft of their land and its plunder.

Australia has 40% of the world’s uranium, all of it on indigenous land. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has just been to India to sell uranium to a government that refuses to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and whose enemy, Pakistan, is also a non-signatory. The threat of nuclear war between them is constant. Uranium is an essential ingredient of nuclear weapons. Gillard’s deal in Delhi formally ends the Australian Labor Party’s long-standing policy of denying uranium to countries that reject the NPT’s obligation “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament”.

Like the people of Japan, Australian Aborigines have experienced the horror of nuclear weapons. During the 1950s, the British government tested atomic bombs at Maralinga in South Australia. The Aboriginal population was not consulted and received scant or no warning, and still suffer the effects. Yami Lester was a boy when he saw the nuclear flash and subsequently went blind. The enduring struggle of Aboriginal people for recognition as human beings has been a fight not only for their land but for what lies beneath it. Since they were granted a status higher than that of sheep — up to 1971, unlike the sheep, they were not counted – many of their modest land rights have been subverted or diminished by governments in Canberra.

In 2007, prime minister John Howard used the army to launch an “emergency intervention” in Aboriginal communities in the resource-rich Northern Territory. Lurid and fraudulent stories of paedophile rings were the cover; indigenous people were told they would not receive basic services if they did not surrender the leasehold of their land. Gillard’s minister of indigenous affairs has since given this the Orwellian title of “Stronger Futures”.

The tactics include driving people into “hub towns” and denying decent housing to those forced to live up to a dozen in one room. The removal of Aboriginal children has reached the level of the infamous “Stolen Generation” of the last century. Many may never see their families again.

Once the “intervention” had got under way, hundreds of licences were granted to companies exploring for minerals, including uranium. Contemporary politics in Australia is often defined by the power of the mining companies. When the previous Labor prime minister, Kevin Rudd, proposed a tax on record mining profits, he was deposed by a backroom party cabal, including Gillard, who reduced the tax. Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks reveal that two of the plotters against Rudd were informants of the US embassy, which Rudd had angered by not following to the letter US plans to encircle China and to release uranium for sale to US clients such as India.

Gillard has since returned Australia to its historic relationship with Washington, similar to that of an east European satellite of the Soviet Union. The day before Barack Obama arrived in Canberra last year to declare China the new enemy of the “free world”, Gillard announced the end of her party’s ban on uranium sales.

Washington’s other post-cold war obsessions demand the services of Australia. These include the intimidation of Iran and destruction of that country’s independence, the undermining of the NPT and prevention of nuclear-free zones that threaten the nuclear-armed dominance of the US and Israel. Unlike Iran, a founding signatory of the NPT and supporter of a nuclear-free zone Middle East, the US and Israel ban independent inspections. And both are currently threatening to attack Iran which, as the combined agencies of US intelligence confirmed, has no nuclear weapons.

The necessary inversion of reality and double standard require a “carefully orchestrated process”, the US embassy is assured by an Australian official quoted by WikiLeaks. According to the US cables, there are enthusiastic “Australian ideas” for “dredging up” information to help discredit Mohamad El Baradei who, as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2009, repeatedly refuted US claims that Iran was building a nuclear weapon. The Director of the Australian Arms Control office is portrayed as a US watchdog, warning against “a slippery slope” of governments “exercising independent judgement” on nuclear matters. A senior Australian official, one Patrick Suckling, is reporting as telling the US that “Australia wants the most robust, intrusive and debilitating sanctions possible” against Iran. Suckling’s victims are today mostly ordinary men, women and children.

On 5 October, the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, which includes Aboriginal groups from across the country, gathered in Alice Springs. They called for a moratorium on all uranium mining and sales. Indigenous women made a special plea to Gillard, recently ordained by the white media as a feminist hero. No response was expected.

On 17 October, all the testaments of obedience and servility to the mighty patron finally paid off when Australia was rewarded with a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, known in Canberra as “the top table”. The timing is striking. An attack by Nato on Syria or Iran, or both, has never been closer. A world war beckons as 50 years are marked since “the world stood still”, wrote the historian Sheldon Stern. This was the 1962 Cuba missile crisis when the US and the Soviet Union came within an ace of nuclear war. Declassified files disclose that President John F. Kennedy authorised “NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots … to take off for Moscow and drop a bomb.”

The echo today could not be clearer.

For more information on John Pilger, please visit his website at www.johnpilger.com

Uranium mining in Australia

What could be more natural?! Make money on the way up and make money on the way out.

 

Australia: Newman lifts uranium mining ban in Queensland

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has announced he is ending the state's decades-long ban on uranium mining.

ABC,

22 October, 2012

The State Government decision reverses the position Mr Newman's Liberal National Party took to the election in March.

Uranium has not been mined in Queensland since the closure of the Mary Kathleen mine in the state's north-west in 1982.

State Cabinet made the decision while meeting today in the southern border town of Goondiwindi.

The Queensland Resources Council says the state holds about $18 billion worth of known uranium reserves, mostly in the north-west.

Mr Newman says the decision to lift the ban was partially prompted by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent support for uranium sales to India.

"With the Prime Minister's statement about uranium exports to India, there is no earthly reason why Queenslanders should miss out on the economic opportunities and the jobs from uranium mining in this state," he said.

He says the resumption of mining will be overseen by a three-member committee that will report to Parliament in three months.

The State Government says it has no plans to develop nuclear power or allow the disposal of nuclear waste in Queensland.

Mr Newman says uranium mining operations could take more than a year to get up and running again.

The State Government says there are more than 80 known sites that contain valuable amounts of uranium, mostly in the state's north-west.

Successive Labor state governments had maintained a policy of allowing uranium exploration but not mining.

'Broken promise'

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney says the LNP has broken an election promise on the issue.

"They said that they were crystal clear that they had no plans or desire to approve or facilitate the development of uranium in Queensland," he said.

"This is a massive and deeply disappointing about-face that completely lacks a basis in evidence and also runs against community promises and expectation."

But State Member for Mount Isa Rob Katter says uranium mining will broaden the industry base in Queensland and generate hundreds of jobs.

"Valhalla Reserve is about 35 kilometres north of Mount Isa - just off the bitumen - it was the third or fourth biggest deposit in Australia," he said.

"It rates between eighth and 12th largest in the world.

"Last time I checked, there is about $2 billion in royalties sitting in the ground in Queensland from uranium reserves."

Speaking before Mr Newman's announcement, Mount Isa Mayor Tony McGrady predicted the decision would spark another resources boom and bring Queensland into line with other uranium-rich states.

"The Federal Labor Government supports the mining and export of uranium, and the Opposition does, and every other state and territory - all except Queensland," he said.

The Australian Uranium Association says the majority of the nation's uranium deposits are found in Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

In February the New South Wales Liberal State Government approved the resumption of exploration for uranium, a move which was seen as paving the way for a full resumption of mining.

Mining is currently banned in Victoria but allowed in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.