Remains of toxic bullets litter Iraq
At a roadside produce stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, business is brisk for Latifa Khalaf Hamid. Iraqi drivers pull up and snap up fresh bunches of parsley, mint leaves, dill, and onion stalks.

But Ms. Hamid’s stand is just four paces away from a burnt-out Iraqi tank, destroyed by — and contaminated with — controversial American depleted-uranium (DU) bullets. Local children play “throughout the day” on the tank, Hamid says, and on another one across the road.

No one has warned the vendor to keep the toxic and radioactive dust off her produce. The children haven’t been told not to play with the radioactive debris. They gather around as a Geiger counter carried by a visiting reporter starts singing when it nears a DU bullet fragment no bigger than a pencil eraser. It registers nearly 1,000 times normal background radiation levels on the digital readout.

Reporters from the Christian Science Monitor visited four sites in the city — including two randomly chosen destroyed Iraqi armored vehicles, a clutch of burned American ammunition trucks, and the downtown planning ministry — and found significant levels of radioactive contamination from the US battle for Baghdad.

In the first partial Pentagon disclosure of the amount of DU used in Iraq, a US Central Command spokesman told the Monitor that A-10 Warthog aircraft fired 300,000 bullets. The normal combat mix for these 30-mm rounds is five DU bullets to one — a mix that would have left about 75 tons of DU in Iraq.

Six American vehicles struck with DU “friendly fire” in 1991 were deemed to be too contaminated to take home, and were buried in Saudi Arabia. Of 16 more brought back to a purpose-built facility in South Carolina, six had to be buried in a low-level radioactive waste dump.

“We were told it was going to be paradise [when Saddam Hussein was toppled], and now they are killing our children,” Hamid says, voicing a common Iraqi perception about the risk of DU. “The Americans did not bother to warn us that this is a contaminated area.”

The depleted-uranium bullets are made of low-level radioactive nuclear-waste material, left over from the making of nuclear fuel and weapons. DU is controversial because it leaves a trail of contamination that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years — the age of our solar system. (Christian Science Monitor)

Iraq oil boss paid $1 million a year by contract bidder
The US-led effort to rebuild Iraq faced more criticism on May 13 after the Texan businessman installed to run the country’s oil industry admitted having financial links to a company bidding for reconstruction work.

Philip Carroll acknowledged in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he could be accused of a conflict of interest because of his relationship with the company Fluor.

The secret process of awarding multi-billion-dollar contracts to reconstruction companies, many with links to the Bush administration, has proven contentious in the US and Europe.

The Californian company has formed a joint venture with the British construction company Amec to bid for work estimated to cost about $6 billion.

Carroll, 65, receives more than $1million a year from Fluor in retirement benefits and bonuses. He also owns shares that are worth about $34 million.

Fluor is well connected. Kenneth Oscar, the vice-president of the firm, is a former army secretary and oversaw the Pentagon’s $35 billion procurement budget while he was in office.

USAID, which has earmarked an initial $2.4 billion for reconstruction and humanitarian work, expedited the normal tendering process and invited only six American companies to bid for the main contract, eventually awarded to Bechtel.

The army awarded a separate contract, which could be worth up to $7 billion, to Kellogg, Brown & Root, a division of Halliburton, the company once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney. Cheney receives $180,000 a year in deferred income from Halliburton. (Guardian UK)

Troops ‘vandalize’ ancient city of Ur
One of the greatest wonders of civilization, and probably the world’s most ancient structure -- the Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq -- has been vandalized by American soldiers and airmen, according to aid workers in the area.

They claim that US forces have spray-painted the remains with graffiti and stolen kiln-baked bricks made millennia ago. As a result, the US military has put the archaeological treasure, which dates back 6,000 years, off-limits to its own troops. Any violations will be punishable in military courts.

Land immediately adjacent to Ur has been chosen by the Pentagon for a sprawling airfield and military base. Access is highly selective, screened and subject to military escorts, which -- even if agreed -- need to be arranged days or weeks in advance and carefully skirt the areas of reported damage.

There has been no official response to the allegations of vandalism -- reported to The Observer by aid workers and one concerned US officer.

Ur is believed by many to be the birthplace of the prophet Abraham. It was the religious seat of the civilization of Sumer at the dawn of the line of dynasties, which ruled Mesopotamia starting about 4000 BC. Long before the rise of the Egyptian, Greek or Roman empires, it was here that the wheel was invented and the first mathematical system developed. Here, the first poetry was written, notably the epic Gilgamesh, a classic of ancient literature.

The most prominent monument is the best preserved ziggurat -- stepped pyramid -- in the Arab world, initially built by the Sumerians around 4000 BC and restored by Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century BC.

The Pentagon has elected to build its massive and potentially permanent base right alongside the site, so that the view from the peak of the ziggurat -- more or less unchanged for 6,000 years -- will be radically altered.

There are reports that walls have been damaged by spray-painted graffiti, mostly patriotic or other slogans, and regimental mottos. One graffiti reads: “SEMPER FI” -- “Always Faithful” -- the motto of the Marines, who stormed through this region on their way to Baghdad, and form a contingent at the base.

Other reports by groups who cannot be named for fear of losing access to medical patients being treated on the base say there has been widespread stealing of clay bricks baked to build and restore the structures at Ur.

The Army Public Affairs office at Ur refused to speak to The Observer. (Observer UK)

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