Salem-News.com Under Attack Over Articles Revealing Suspected Illegal Nuclear Weapon Use

Individual makes numerous false claims and they are landing everywhere; this article offers clarity about our reports.

Not an actual image of Roger Helbig Special thanks: midnightwriters.blogspot.com

(SALEM) - It has come to our attention that an individual by the name of Roger Helbig, has been going to great effort to damage our reputation over Salem-News.com reports referencing the possible use of illegal weapons-grade nuclear arms in both Fallujah, Iraq and Gaza, Palestine.

First, the two reports are reviews of investigations conducted by a respected, if somewhat controversial British scientist named Christopher Busby. Those of us in the world of journalism who report the findings of groundbreaking professionals like Dr. Busby, can be equally controversial, but that does not mean we are inaccurate, nor does it open us up to being fodder for vicious attacks, with ridiculous and damaging claims that are patently untrue. The sad truth and the bottom line, is that reports of this nature are harmful only to political and business interests that are involved in military activity that is illegal under international law.

These are the two reports:

Mar-14-2012: Victims of Israeli Attacks in Gaza Contaminated with Uranium - Tim King Salem-News.com

Nov-04-2011: Birth Defects Reveal Weapons-Grade Enriched Uranium Used in Fallujah, Iraq - Tim King Salem-News.com

There are good reasons for being curious over the well established possibility that some type of illegal, undisclosed nuclear device was used in Fallujah, Iraq. The rate of birth defects has literally skyrocketed since the U.S. operation there in 2003, and that in itself is a tragic, long story that I am personally connected to. There are established international laws and specific treaties that regulate the use of nuclear devices. If these laws and regulations were violated, it is up to the media to bring it forward. Nobody else is going to do it.

My Documentation of Congenital Heart Defects Near Fallujah

For me, the story about this problem begins when I was embedded as a reporter at the al Asad Marine air base in Iraq in the summer of 2008. I had the rare chance to shoot and produce a report about a U.S. Navy doctor who was working with Israeli, U.S. and Jordanian officials, to transport Iraqi kids out of the country, for badly-needed surgeries to repair congenital heart defects, in order to survive, literally.

I don't know for sure that these beautiful little kids lucky enough to have the attention of this incredible Navy Corpsman Doctor attached to the U.S. Marines, were victims of this bizarre radiation contamination that has been documented by Dr. Busby in Fallujah, but it seems distinctly possible as Fallujah and al Asad are less than an hour's drive apart, both in al Anbar province, and all three of the families I worked with had to travel to get to al Asad, they did not live in the local area.

Regardless of whether these kids are from Fallujah, which again I suspect they are, I have included this video because it documents the congenital heart defects that are affecting the children born in Iraq since 2003. This report, Marine Corps, Jordan and Israel Offer Hope for Iraqi Child Heart Patients, was filed on 21 September 2008, five years after the birth defects began surfacing, the age of the kids in this report corresponds with that timeframe.

First Fallujah Report

Though I covered this story in 2008, I would not understand for more than two years, how it all potentially tied together. We first explored the actual issue of birth defects and heart problems in Fallujah kids, in January 2011, after Salem-News.com was contacted by a group of doctors from both Fallujah, and Genoa, Italy, who evaluated the birth defect increase and several other criteria. The article, Four Polygamous Families with Congenital Birth Defects from Fallujah, Iraq, truly opened our eyes to the notion that something was specifically different in Fallujah.

Images from Fallujah, babies born 2003 and later.

The article begins by stating...

Since 2003, congenital malformations have increased to account for 15% of all births in Fallujah, Iraq. Congenital heart defects have the highest incidence, followed by neural tube defects. Similar birth defects were reported in other populations exposed to war contaminants.

I try to imagine what it would be like to learn that 15% of all newborns at my local hospital were being born with defects and deformations, and I really can't. People would be up in arms. In Iraq of course, many do not survive, all are certainly not even documented. The extensive review of this problem, authored by several doctors who are listed with the article, ends by stating:

We conclude that the high prevalence of birth defects in Fallujah is impairing the population’s health and its capacity to care for the surviving children. These defects could be due to environmental contaminants which are known components of modern weaponry. Investigations of metal contaminants, and elucidation of the types and body burden of metals, combined with simultaneous registry of the population’s reproductive history, will allow the identification of families at high risk and will facilitate therapeutic measures to remediate the damages.

The highway from Kuwait to Iraq is still littered with the remnants of Iraqi forces. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King, summer 2008.

Depleted Uranium

Before dismissing the possibility that an undisclosed nuclear device was used in Iraq, consider that a serious problem already exists with the controversial use of rounds with depleted uranium (DU), which is only one step down from a nuclear bomb as the rounds are radioactive.

There is little doubt; whether it is intentional or not, that both Iraq and Kuwait, were used as a live human testing ground for 'dirty weapons'. The image to the right is the 'Highway of Death' that many Americans likely remember columns of Iraqi troops traveling back to their country on, as planes annihilated, or perhaps exterminated them. with the DU rounds. Today soldiers and Marines passing this place in military buses have lead curtains blocking them from radiation.

On 21 March 2011, we published the article Recalling the Battle: History Repeats Itself on the 8th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq by Jeff Archer, that relays a damning first-hand account, underscoring the use of DU
weapons by the U.S. government; it has been a nightmare for Iraqi people since the 1991 U.S. war, remembered for the ensuing slaughter of defenseless, retreating Iraqi soldiers.

The sacrifice in this war came in reverse. More Americans were killed in accidents than combat in this Desert Storm, however inexplicable diseases have haunted these veterans in the years following.

A truck in Iraq extremely damaged in combat- very likely DU contaminated. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King.

Archer wrote:

In the buildup to Desert Storm, no one seemed concerned about U.S. nuclear weapons. Many were shocked to learn that the U.S. used radioactive projectiles, made from spent uranium, against the Iraqis. When Desert Storm ended, several hundred tons of spent uranium were sitting in the desert in Kuwait and southern Iraq. Late in 1991, the British Atomic Energy Authority issued a secret report on the use of spent uranium in Desert Storm.

According to the document, uranium was used in tens of thousands of armor-piercing rounds fired at Iraqi vehicles by U.S. aircraft and U.S. and British tanks. According to Lt. Colonel Vincent Macchi, a combat commander in Desert Storm, “Every attack aircraft in the air and on the ground carried them.”

The Atomic Energy Authority went on to say that there was enough uranium in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq to potentially cause 500,000 deaths. It added that the sheer volume of uranium did indicate a significant problem.

With regard to the 1991 war; there was never any need for western forces to spend billions of dollars sending a massive coalition to the Middle east, only to defeat Iraqi forces, which had long been loyal to the U.S. as an ally. The forces of Osama bin Laden were in Saudi Arabia; a key ally of Kuwait, known for religious Wahhabi fundamental Islam. They had freshly returned from defeating the Soviets as part of the Mujaheddin in the Afghan Civil War between 1979 and 1989, bin Laden was incensed with his own government for not allowing his veteran fighters to take care of business. This is the beginning of the man's hatred for the U.S. Remember also, that the same Iraqi forces had just a few years earlier, attacked Iran in a bloody war covertly funded (hardly) by the U.S. government. It was revenge for the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

Landing at Baghdad Airport 2008 Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

Baghdad Airport - 2003

Later in the article, Archer discusses a very controversial hot point in what may have been far more of a dirty war than we have been told. An army officer involved in the battle for the Baghdad Airport in 2003, says the U.S. government used a neutron bomb to kill Iraqi forces in underground tunnels. A neutron bomb kills people but its signature is small in comparison to the atom bomb or other devices. Finally, the neutron bomb does not destroy property. It contaminates the area where it is deployed, but buildings remain standing.

In July 2006, an article written by Captain Eric May, a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Army, published by the Lone Star Iconoclast, alleged that the Battle of Baghdad, which began at Saddam International Airport, was far more devastating to the U.S. forces. This was no conspiracy theorist looking for publicity. Additionally, he held knowledge that few writers about Iraq have: keen expertise in the areas of military tactics and U.S. military intelligence.

Captain May made another allegation that was not mentioned in the mainstream press. He thought that the outnumbered U.S. military used a neutron bomb at the airport to stop the Iraqi troops.

Captain May entered the U.S. Army in 1977 and served for 14 years. He eventually received advance intelligence education and he spent years in deciphering messages, mainly from the former Soviet Union.

I know some Americans are repulsed by the idea that their country may have committed this act, or more accurately, series of alleged acts, but if the information is true, then it is probably also true that Israel is now following suit and using the weapons on the civilian population of Gaza. If this is not cause for alarm, nothing in this world is.

Iraqi forces load in HUMVEE's at Baghdad Airport. Photo by Tim King

Jeff Archer interviewed Captain Eric May in the same article, who said:

The most extreme thing I picked up is that the Battle of Baghdad was started at the airport with the U.S. forces being overwhelmed. It wound up being a six-hour firefight at close quarters and my surmise is that our side was running out of ammo and somebody decided to go nuclear. That seems to be universally acknowledged by everybody on all sides, except the American.

Evidently, what happened was the U.S. G.I.s buttoned up inside their armor, which cuts down the transmission of radiation, and some sort of nuclear devices were used at Baghdad Airport. Since then, American battle doctrine has been revised to allow commanders to do exactly the kind of things that I’m inferring from my sources that were done at Baghdad Airport. In other words, they retroactively retrofitted the doctrine.

The nuclear threshold is a very fuzzy thing in this war anyway. We already went over using D.U. (depleted uranium). That already, arguably, makes it a nuclear war. Of course, you see why Battle of Baghdad One had to be covered up. How the hell do you go into a war where you say you’re going to remove an evil madman because he has weapons of mass destruction and you bring them with you?

If this happened in Baghdad, there is no reason to suspect it did not also happen at Fallujah. If it happened there, then it likely is being used in Israeli attacks on Palestine, as Dr. Busby's published research indicates. We are critical of Israel in many reports and frequently illustrate for our readers, the latest war crimes Israel commits against civilian targets in the Gaza Strip. Of course you know what happens when media dares to criticize Israel's politics.

Nazi Allegations?

It isn't enough that this man Roger Helbig, on his slander and libel mission, suggests we are peddling bogus information about the illegal use of undisclosed nuclear weapons; he also goes off in a different direction with another paragraph of an email sent to God only knows how many people, suggesting we are Nazi's because we carry news from groups that stand for the battered population of Palestine.

Artwork by Carlos Latuff, friend of Salem-News.com in Rio de Janeiro. To see more of his work, visit: Latuff Gallery

This is part of what Helbig has sent to one of our associates: it fairly mirrors what I am hearing from others about similar contact from the same source:

“

Why do you have a link to this site? Are you a group of Neo Nazis? This article is completely bogus. Christopher Busby has long had connections with certain Iraqis and probably Hamas or Hezbollah as well. He has been lying about depleted uranium for years. Tim King does not care. If he is not a Neo Nazi, he certainly likes to associate with them.

”

First of all, I don't know who Dr. Busby or other people named in this attack, may or may not have association with. However I can tell you that Salem-News.com regularly carries reports from Ezzedeen AL-Qassam Brigades - Palestine, the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, of course; that is the only possible way to learn what is taking place in Gaza as Israel continually illegally attacks that population with weapons manufactured and paid for by the U.S. government like drones and F-16's. Hamas news is far more honest than the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) press releases, which we also receive regularly and sometimes use, at least in part. It's hard sometimes because we also have reporters in Gaza, and we often can't use IDF news because we know they are not credible. We have covered a lot of news about this part of the world; thousands of stories over the years.

We never mince any words about this and we consistently work with Israeli peace groups and carry Israeli writers and articles from Ha'aretz and other Israeli media. Do we support Israeli war crimes and apartheid, 'Jewish only' roads and separate laws for Jews and non-Jews? No, we vehemently oppose these things because they are purely racist policies that Israel has maintained and increased for more than sixty years. We regularly carry reports about similar Genocidal apartheid governments like Sri Lanka, constantly in fact, and we expose ethnic cleansing, war crimes and human rights violations everywhere in the world. We do not apologize for our criticism of utterly immoral warlike behavior nor do we care at all what religion the various players are, or are not.

We also share material with Al Manar, which is the Hezbollah news agency out of Beirut, Lebanon, you bet; Dr. Franklin Lamb, international attorney originally from Salem, Oregon, and I both also write for Al Manar. My articles examine things from the U.S. perspective, while Franklin moves between Beirut and other key areas in the Middle east constantly filing new articles that rarely resemble the filtered western media reports on CNN and Fox, etc.

We devote a lot of time and attention to this part of the world and our material is fresh, honest and specifically does not benefit the military/industrial/complex which has pushed the earth to the edges of existence in many ways. Al Manar considers the plight of the Palestinian refugees living in miserable camps, always subject to violence from both Israel and Lebanon's Christian political arms.

And to accuse our group of being Nazi? I have to wonder if any individual who would suggest that, when we are down in the dirt racism fighters, is even stable, or of course, perhaps, working for the nuclear industry. Just today I published an article about how our writer Dr. Phil Leveque, captured 26 Nazi officers almost single-handed during WWII. One of our biggest ongoing local stories involves Civil Rights violations of African-American guards and prison inmates in the Oregon prison system.

I have news for Roger Helbig: you're going to pay for your damages, and so will anyone else who undertakes this type of attack on our honest, legitimate efforts to educate the public. You can not attack a brave news group that has every right to publish anything we want to publish, as long as it is true, by trying to undermine our business foundation, contacting our advertisers and claiming we are Nazi's. We on the other hand, see that you don't even hesitate to state outright and clearly, that you are trying to affect our livelihood; that is a serious thing to have written friend.

One agency we know of that this individual wrote to, provided Salem-News.com a distinguished journalism award last year. After this group set him straight, he sent this message to them:

I am glad that the clubs are not Neo Nazi and am sorry I even implied that they might. Thank you, for writing. King is not possible to deal with so I am looking to hit him where it hurts in his pocketbook. I really doubt that his advertisers, etc. want to support someone who agrees with these people. Douglas Lind Rokke spoke here and the master of ceremonies David von Kleist produced Rokke's first video "Beyond Treason", King has posted articles from Bob Nichols, Rokke's mouthpiece Neo Nazi American...

This defaming individual uses and then retracts his insult, 'Nazi' - to describe people who are associated with anti-nuclear, anti-war, pro-government accountability journalists, activists, writers and film producers. 'Beyond Treason' is a film that exposes the morally bankrupt businesses like 'Monsanto' that brought Americans and Vietnamese this lasting gift called 'Agent Orange'. The same company behind genetically modified food (GMO) which is a public hazard in the opinion of a growing number of experts.

Here is the description for 'Beyond Treason':

It reveals a history of profiteering by chemical companies such as Monsanto Company who used war as an occasion to sell their latest products, such as Agent Orange. The film gives details of US government testing of chemicals on its own citizens such as Operation Whitecoat and MKUltra. The film makes a compelling case that this policy is responsible for Gulf War syndrome, still referred to by the US military as a 'mystery illness'. The film suggests that the symptoms have a range of causes including cost cutting on safety equipment by military contractors, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) munitions or other unlicensed chemicals as well as intentional experimentation on American soldiers by the US military.
- Beyond Treason - Wikipedia

Roger Helbig needs to get it through his head that being critical of dangerous U.S. military and business practices and Israeli war crimes and the possible undocumented use of nuclear arms, does not make one a 'Nazi' and he should read the 14 April 2010 article, Israel's Declining Sperm Quality Tied to Depleted Uranium Exposure, which will make him very unhappy, as the information comes 100% from Israeli doctors and the research initially was published in Israel, not that he won't likely find a way to call them Nazi's too.

False Claims Regarding Fukushima

Helbig implies that the dignified scientist Dr Chris Busby, has been "scamming the frightened mothers of Fukushima" which is a spurious lie.

I can easily back this up.

In fact not a single thing could be less true; there are absolutely no reported 'scams' and anyone who pays a slight amount of attention can see that Dr. Busby has been a scientist for a long time.

Nothing could be worse, or more dire, about the situation Fukushima parents are facing, than this video that shows parents meeting with officials from Tokyo who refuse to provide answers, or take urine samples of young children from the parents, and are then literally chased to the elevator and out of the building by very angry people.

This video incidentally, was sent to our newsroom by families in Japan who specifically created it with English subtitles so a U.S. audience could perhaps begin to comprehend the tragedy they are living with.

It is a fact that the government of Japan has abandoned the families of the Fukushima prefecture and there are fewer stories in existence that are sadder about the Japanese government, the same that turned its back in years past on Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors.

The Tokyo government has refused to conduct testing of children and the parents are infuriated by this. Dr. Busby was involved in trying to find answers; anything to help the families abandoned by their government to certain radiation contamination. Isotopes affect children differently, Japan is guilty of severely undeserving its populace, and that is putting it very lightly.

The only mothers in Fukushima who aren't frightened, are those who are already dead. This is the fault of an extremely hazardous nuclear energy plant and a tsunami that caused it to melt down, not Dr. Busby's.

Now, in case there are any questions left, and I suspect there are not, except maybe how much I intend to sue Mr. Helbig for... I thought it was proper to include not all, but some of Dr. Busby's background:

Dr. Christopher Busby Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Dr. Christopher Busby

• In 1999 Busby stood as an Election Candidate for the European Parliamentary elections.
• Busby was a member of the British government sponsored Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters (CERRIE), which operated from 2001 to 2004.
• In 2001 he was appointed to the UK Ministry of Defence Oversight Committee on Depleted Uranium (DUOB).
• In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Liverpool, in the Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology.
• In 2004 he was named Leader of Science Policy for (EU) Policy Information Network for Child Health and Environment PINCHE based in Arnhem, The Netherlands.
• Busby is a visiting professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster researching the toxicity of heavy metals to the human body. In 2008 he was a visiting researcher at the German Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Julius Kuhn Institute.

According to his CERRIE biography:

• As member of the International Society for Environment Epidemiology, he was invited to Iraq and Kosovo to investigate the health effects of depleted uranium in weapons used by allied forces on populations. He has also given presentations on depleted uranium to the Royal Society and to the European Parliament. He was a member of the UK Ministry of Defence Oversight Board on Depleted Uranium.
• Busby was the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risks, an informal committee based in Brussels, which produced a report for CERRIE.

Anyone who would like to let Roger Helbig know how you feel about him, is welcome to drop him a line, at rhelbig@sunset.net

And then I Googled this guy and lo and behold, he is no stranger to this behavior, check this simple search, the results refer to his being a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who likes to bully people: Google search results for 'Roger Helbig'

Other articles referencing Dr. Chris Busby on Salem-News.com:

Mar-14-2012: Fukushima Radiation Spreads Worldwide - George Washington Special to Salem-News.com

Aug-29-2011: Japan is Venting Radiation High Into Atmosphere - Jack Nounan for Salem-News.com

Aug-16-2011: Nuclear Nightmare in Fukushima, Japan Much Worse than Revealed - Salem-News.com

And finally, if you care about our efforts, particularly in light of this development, please help us by sending a donation, we seriously need it as ad revenue is very limited, and we aren't doing this to make money. Your support allows our attention to remain with content which is vital. There is a PayPal logo at the top of Salem-News.com. Please help us fight the good fight.

Our PayPal email is bonjtheartists@hotmail.com

Tim King in 2008, covering the Iraq War

Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from The Associated Press the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs, Electronic Media Association and The Red Cross In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005.

Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 20+ countries and regions.

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