Say no to war

A frightened villager brings the lid of a barrel that contained uranium oxide (yellowcake) taken from the Tuwaitha nuclear facility, that was left unsecured by occupying forces after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The family used this radioactive barrel to store water and are complaining of rashes and skin problems.

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Greenpeace is opposed to war. Most recently, we joined with people all over the world in months of global action to promote a non-violent solution to the conflict in Iraq.

We believed the war was more about oil than about effectively dealing with weapons of mass destruction. It would result in devastating human and environmental consequences, and set a dangerous (not to mention illegal)precedent.

Though the occupying forces were quick to secure Iraqi oil fields, they neglected to safeguard dangerous nuclear material. Now that material has made its way to homes and schools. Weapons of mass destruction, the alleged reason for the war in the first place, were never found.

Uranium and other nuclear material stored under UN control in Iraq until the fall of Saddam Hussein have been stolen and local residents are reportedly displaying symptoms of radiation poisoning. Six weeks after the occupying forces took control of the country, the US finally conceded that the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), could return to assess what has been stolen at part of one site, Tuwaitha. Yet the IAEA has been refused access to the nearby population or to other sites it wants to visit, in contravention of UN resolutions.

We went to Iraq in June 2003 with a small, specialist team to examine the local environment and to assess the extent of any nuclear contamination. The team took samples of soil and water for laboratory analysis and conducted on-site monitoring with specialist radiation detection equipment. While the extent of the Greenpeace radiological survey will not be comprehensive, it will provide some idea of the true level of risk to the people of the area and to the environment.

We are calling for a full assessment of the situation at Tuwaitha and other nuclear sites in Iraq:

The occupying powers must allow the IAEA to remain in Iraq with an unrestricted mandate to test as well as document all nuclear sites.
The occupying powers must allow the IAEA to oversee an urgent medical and environmental assessment of the impact of the radioactive material that has spread in the local community - a practice that would be standard in any other country and circumstance.
A hunt for all the industrial radioactive isotopes in Iraq must be conducted urgently - these are all potential dirty bombs.

Related reports

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Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations

23 September 2005

An unclassified draft of a US nuclear doctrine review that spells out conditions under which US commanders might seek approval to use nuclear weapons.

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Comment matrix on Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations

23 September 2005

Comments from the US military branches to the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, which outlines how and under what circumstances nuclear weapons might be deployed by the US military.

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Fallout victims of the Pacific: Tony de Brum

23 May 2005

Tony de Brum grew up in the Marshall Islands under the shadow of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. This is a speech he presented to the Non Proliferation Treaty review conference in 2005 about the plight of radiation victims in the Marshalls and other island nations. The Rainbow Warrior evacuated residents of the contaminated island of Rongelap in the Marshalls in 1985 to a new home, shortly before the ship was sunk by agents of the French government for her opposition to nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific.

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Letter to IAEA re nuclear material in Iraq

29 July 2004

Letter from Greenpeace to the International Atomic Energy Agency outlining results of Greenpeace inspection of Tuwaitha nuclear centre in Iraq. Greenpeace found unsecured uranium yellowcake and other radiological sources near schools and in the houses of local residents.

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Analysis of Greenpeace materials from Iraq

29 July 2004

Report on the proliferation and radiological impacts of nuclear material looting uncovered by Greenpeace in July 2003. This report, by nuclear expert John Large, was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in July of 2004. It assesses the radiological contamination of team members and residents of the area.

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Greenpeace Draft treaty banning fissile materials

05 May 2004

If you want something done right, you've just got to do it yourself. Since the nuclear weapons states party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty haven't made good the promise of moving us toward a world without nuclear weapons, we took it upon ourselves at Greenpeace to draft a treaty banning fissile materials.

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Greenpeace letter to Iraq Coalition members

15 March 2004

This is a sample letter which Greenpeace has sent to all members of the Iraq coalition on the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It asks them to respond to specific questions about their support for the war in light of the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. It asks them to renounce the doctrine of preventive war and unilateralism, and reinforce the rule of international law.

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Oil and the Iraq Crisis

08 March 2004

Control over oil is a central motivation for the Bush administration's military confrontation with Iraq. The unilateralist nature of the US's new security stance in a post September 11th world has become inexorably linked with the importance of controlling oil.

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Then and Now - Pre war fiction and post war reality.

08 March 2004

The quotes from before the war by the US and UK governments and the realities discovered after the war.

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Iraq - January 2004 - The impacts of war.

08 March 2004

The most recent conflict in Iraq exacerbated the situation in an already battered country and its people. The eight year war with Iran, the 1991 Gulf War and the subsequent 12 years of sanctions all took their toll on the nations infrastructure and its people. There has not been a fully comprehensive study on the human and environmental consequences of the war on Iraq. The United Nations Environmental Programme has only managed to carry out a desk study and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was only allowed to assess one site in a very controlled manner. Below is a brief summary of what Greenpeace has managed to glean from publicly available sources and our work in Iraq.

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An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for US National Security

01 October 2003

A world thrown into turmoil by drought, floods, typhoons. Whole countries rendered uninhabitable. The capital of the Netherlands submerged. The borders of the US and Australia patrolled by armies firing into waves of starving boat people desperate to find a new home. Fishing boats armed with cannon to drive off competitors. Demands for access to water and farmland backed up with nuclear weapons. Sound like the ravings of doom-saying environmental extremists? It's actually from a report commissioned by the Pentagon on how to ready America for the coming climate Armageddon.

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Why is the WTO a Problem?

01 September 2003

The WTO – since it came into being in 1995 – has made the promotion of free trade for the gain of private interests the ultimate goal, over and above all other social, public and environmental objectives. The system is fatally flawed: a properly functioning trade system should set the conditions for peace, security and sustainability. Instead, the WTO sees the promotion of trade as the key goal. For instance, the Doha trade talks, despite being labeled a development round, has failed to improve significantly and to take seriously the need to give priority to sustainable development and environmental policy. Issues that are most important to poorer countries have continually been stalled, with no progress in negotiations. This is creating a crisis of legitimacy for the WTO.

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'Preventive War' and International Law After Iraq

27 May 2003

The doctrine of ‘preventive war´ announced and practised by the United States, the attack on Iraq by the United States supported by a number of countries described as the ‘coalition of the willing´, and unilateral actions taken with respect to a number of international conventions such as the NPT, the ABM Treaty, the CTBT and the Kyoto Protocol have given rise to concern about the current state of international law and in particular whether the prohibitions against the use of force on which the United Nations Charter is founded are still respected by Member States and whether multilateralism and the rule of law is to be superseded by unilateralism and a return to reliance on the use of military and economic force instead of law and diplomacy. This paper outlines the recent development of the prohibition of the use of force and proscriptions in the UN Charter, the legal position with respect to Iraq and developments following the attack on Iraq. It would be beneficial to ascertain the position of States which are described as being members of the ‘coalition of the willing´ in order to fully describe the current position of States with respect to the doctrine of ‘preventive war´.

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Greenpeace Playing Cards

01 May 2003

Greenpeace's set of "most wanted" playing cards. This deck is designed to help delegates to the Non-proliferation Treaty meeting recognise owners of weapons of mass destruction. Packed with nuclear weapons of mass destruction facts. Fun for the whole family.

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Uniting for Peace Resolution

25 February 2003

This document examines the appropriateness of the UN General Assembly invoking resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace" to break a Security Council deadlock over stopping the war with Iraq.

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International Law and the War on Iraq

17 February 2003

The US and UK governments have claimed the right to invade Iraq even without a second UN resolution. They claim Iraq is a threat to world peace and security and that they are entitled to take preventive unilateral military action. Contrary to these claims, international legal experts from around the world are arguing that without a further Security Council Resolution specifically authorizing the use of force such an attack would be illegal.

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Lessons from the Gulf War: the Human and Environmental Costs

17 February 2003

The human and environmental impacts of the Gulf War were tremendous. Approximately 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and 40,000 to 80,000 Iraqi civilians were killed as a direct result of the war, and those who survived the initial attack have faced untold hardship. Electricity, water and sanitation systems were destroyed; food storage and distribution systems broke down. For many of the survivors, this meant a life of severe malnutrition, disease, and early death.

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Iraq is not the only Country in the Middle East with Weapons of Mass Destruction

17 February 2003

The first use of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East was by British forces in 1917, at a time when Britain occupied territory that was later to become Iraq. Chemical weapons were used in the process of welding the Kurdish north, the Shia south and the Sunni tribes around Baghdad, into an invented Iraqi ‘kingdom’ to control the region’s oil. Winston Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, found "turbulent tribes" of Arabs were fighting this imperialism with some success and encouraged the use of chemical weapons. There was some opposition to this in Whitehall but Churchill wrote: "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes."

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Transports in the French Plutonium Industry: a High Risk Activity

15 February 2003

This study by Wise-Paris and commissioned by Greenpeace, throws light on the scale of the transport of plutonium in France's nuclear industry, an activity involving quantities of high-risk materials often unknown to the public.

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Letter from Greenpeace to the UN Security Council

31 January 2003

Greenpeace believes that the Security Council must face up to its responsibilities: first and foremost its responsibility to uphold the UN Charter on behalf of all humankind.

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Greenpeace statement opposing war with Iraq

11 January 2003

Greenpeace is opposed to war in Iraq and will campaign actively to prevent it. We will remain opposed, whether or not an attack is sanctioned by the United Nations.

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Leaked Deutsche Bank advisory to Exxon

17 September 2002

Confidential report from Deutsche Bank to Exxon warns that "While the company insists that it has suffered no fiscal impact from the [Greenpeace-led] boycott, being handed a reputation as environmental enemy number one for such a big customer-facing business has to be considered a brand risk." The document also considers Exxon's position in a post-regime-change Iraq

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Fort Greely and the Star Wars program

21 October 2001

Ground clearing, a preliminary step to the construction of missile interceptor silos for the Star Wars (National Missile Defense) program, began at Fort Greely in late August 2001. Many observers including the Russian government, see such construction - due to begin next year - as the "straw that will break the camel's back" in terms of the future of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

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The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

21 October 2001

Greenpeace briefing

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Digest of Greenpeace Documents Related to 1991 Gulf War and War in General

10 October 2001

Includes US Nuclear Weapons in the Persian Gulf Crisis (Arkin,Durrant) 1991, Background Briefing on Gulf War (Walsh, Arkin) 1991, and Greenpeace statements against wars in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia.

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