In the current weak (sic), an OWFI delegation visited repeatedly the district of Haweeja, west of Kirkuk city in Iraq, to find that the villages have practically turned into contaminated backyards of radioactive waste of the live ammunition operations field of the US base. This matter has initiated human tragedy in levels unprecedented in the district, and yet was totally ignored by both the Iraqi and US governments who were not concerned with the human lives wasted in the surroundings of the military operations training field.

Within a Haweeja population of 109,000 people, a new disabled generation of infants and children were born with abnormal and under-developed brains, most of whom suffer polio, paralysis and sometimes blindness. The cases registered in the local clinic are 412, while the real numbers add up to more than the 600. Similarly, cancer spreads in all ages, with big numbers among teenagers who currently await their death without any treatment offered by the Iraqi government or the US military which is responsible for the contaminations resulting from their daily live ammunition radiation and emission. The US government continues to grant all the liberty for its military arsenal to practice shelling and explosions in the training field of Haweeja which is only one mile from the homes of families, with no barriers to stop children, sheppards and sheep to walk across in the ammunition training fields.

Most of the disability and cancer cases are in the villages closest to the US base training field, and in the direction of the wind, i.e. south of the field, such as Al Kubeyba, Al Hamdouniya, Al Aatshana and Hor Al Sufun. For example, Al Kubeyba village has a population of 1400 people – out of whom 21 cases were diagnosed with cancer. 3 have recently died while 18 are awaiting their destiny desperately with no hope of being provided treatment or medication by the authorities who should be held accountable.

OWFI delegate invited a group of reporters on August 23rd to witness, report and reveal the Haweeja dilemma globally, thus reversing the censorship of the authorities over it. It arrived to our attention that a resident of Haweeja had taken a sample of soil to Kirkuk Health Department, to be threatened in his next visit that he is summoned for investigation by the US military forces.

OWFI calls for the international courts and tribunals to set up a war crime tribunal committee to investigate into the party which was responsible of contaminating the air, soil and water of Haweeja and thus causing birth defects, disabilities, polio, paralysis and cancers. OWFI also calls upon the international humanitarian organizations to support the people of Haweeja against their daily sufferings, knowing that the Iraqi government deprived them of clean drinking water, adequate basic services, and sources of income. Moreover, there is absolutely no governmental concern of providing them with physical or psychological treatment or medication in any way.

Furthermore, OWFI holds the US government accountable for the devastation of tens of thousands of Haweeja residents who suffer from having one or more disabled children in their immediate family (25% of newborns), thus forcing the residents to abstain from having more children who are destined to suffer alongside their parents. OWFI demands an adequate financial compensation for the victims and their families, as they have been subjected to what amounts to be crimes of war. Exposing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to depleted uranium and other radiation from a US base which is implanted within Iraqi villages shows a clear disregard for Iraqi human life and disrespect to international treaties. The US administrations demonstrates willingness to plague lives of thousands of unsuspecting innocent infants and teenagers with disability and cancer while denying them medication or even acknowledgement of any rights.

OWFI hopes to get help from international organizations to help reduce the sufferings of the people of Haweeja. Our experiences of eight years have taught us not to expect any positive response from both US and Iraqi governments who have cooperated in imposing the disaster in the first place.

Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, president
23/08/2011

Women of reproductive age are at significant risk from the effects of radiation on their bodies and reproductive systems. Studies show women’s exposure to radiation may harm her future ability to bear children and can cause premature aging. The U.S. Center for Disease Control warns pregnant women that, in the event of exposure to radiation, even at low doses, the health consequences for unborn foetuses “can include stunted growth, deformities, abnormal brain function, or cancer that may develop sometime later in life…

…In the two decades after Chernobyl, approximately 200,000 people died. Women living in highly contaminated areas in Ukraine and Belarus were affected by chromosome disorders, leukaemia, psychological trauma, depression, and multiple birth defects in their children. Among women who lived in the affected area, medical studies detected high levels of thyroid and breast cancer. Unfortunately, the former Soviet Union failed to provide timely and continuous information about the effects of radiation on human health.

In light of the unique risk to women’s health caused by exposure to radiation, the Japanese government and international agencies must take immediate action. Yet neither the World Health Organisation nor the International Atomic Energy Association – the two international bodies that monitor health and nuclear security respectively – have provided any information about the effect of radiation exposure to women’s bodies. Even a simple google search on the impact of radiation on women does not yield much, nor are there steps that women can take to mitigate the impact on her health and her children.

At the very least, pregnant women and women of childbearing age should be offered the opportunity for counseling about the risks and given the opportunity to access food and water that is radiation-free.  But as IPS points out, for those already exposed, the damage is done and cannot be reversed and the result is that there will be many miscarriages and children born with birth defects.

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As I write this, I note that the radiation readings at the Fukushima nuclear power plant are the highest they have been since the earthquake and tsunami struck, a start indication that this the magnitude of this crisis is not in any way decreasing and in all likelihood, will get worse.  Think it can’t happen in the U.S.?  The Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio had to be shut down after abnormally high readings last week.

1. The new  pat-down procedure could be extremely painful and embarrassing for someone who has had any kind of breast surgery and particularly for breast cancer victims.
2. Ditto for men who have had prostrate or testicular surgery.
3. The groping pat-downs could be a major trigger for anyone who has ever been physically assaulted, especially sexual abuse victims.
4. They could be very uncomfortable for pregnant women who certainly will not want to be exposed to radiation from the scanners.
5. A given dose of radiation has a much greater impact on a small child than an adult.
6. There are already videos of TSA personnel roughly searching children.  Traumatizing children in this manner should never be acceptable.

Bottom line, we really don’t need to worry about terrorists anymore.  We are terrorizing ourselves.

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Okay, forget the promise of brevity, this is an excellent comment on the issue of triggering for sexual assault victims:

A woman who has been sexually victimized through molestation and rape is more likely to have triggers, flashbacks, and panic attacks of the incident ensuing from words, images, and actions that remind her that her body is no longer sacred. For a rape victim, an enhanced pat down from a stranger in public may come with emotional consequences for her, altering a simple flight to an incident of victimization.

We all may be unsuspecting victims to the delight of certain security personnel. According to Peter Bacqué of WSLS 10 News in Roanoke, VA, TSA ordered Richmond airport to give the highest level of security clearance to a convicted felon even after he was cited for falsifying his employment application.

And as this post points out, there is a lot of concern about the policy in trans communities.

Finally, check out this mashup video of incident after incident after incident of abuse being committed by TSA agents.

for ignoring a March 2009 court order to end age restrictions on emergency contraception.

The FDA is not above the law and should have to follow a court order (not to mention overwhelming scientific evidence) just like everyone else. We hope you’ll share this case with your readers and encourage them to take action against the FDA with us.

The restrictions were originally put in place during the Bush administration because they didn’t want young women to have access to EC. Medical and scientific consensus provides no rationale for age restrictions on EC, and a court ruled in the Center’s favor in 2009 and ordered the FDA to reconsider its policy.

The judge trusted that the Obama administration would do the right thing and reverse course, but fast forward a year and a half and the FDA continues to make excuses. What’s worse is that at the start of his administration, President Obama declared that politics would no longer play a role in U.S. science policy, stating, “we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”

The Center first sued the FDA in 2005, and even a 2009 victory  hasn’t driven the message home to the White House that women of all ages deserve quick, safe access to emergency contraception

Take Action and send a message to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.  And since you absolutely shouldn’t have a conversation about contraception without bunnies, enjoy:

Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography. Every second 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography. In that same second 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines. Every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the U.S.

It’s big business. The pornography industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. 2006 Worldwide Pornography Revenues ballooned to $97.06 billion. 2006 & 2005 U.S. Pornography Industry Revenue Statistics, 2006 Top Adult Search Requests, 2006 Search Engine Request Trends are some of the other statistics revealed here.

206 Worldwide Porn Revenues

• The amount of pornography on the internet can be difficult to fathom. A total of 4.2 million websites contain pornography. That is 12 percent of the total number of websites. There are 100,000 websites that offer pornography and 1 in 7 youths report being solicited for sex on the internet.
• The average age of a child’s first exposure to pornography is 11. A total of 90 percent of children ages 8-16 have viewed pornography online. Pornographers use many character names that appeal to children such as “Pokemon.”