Palestinian Red Crescent Society creates a new anti-Israel rumor about depleted uranium

From The Palestine Red Crescent Society website, in an article from today:

In a recent exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risk, announced the results of his research and analysis having examined air and soil samples in the Gaza Strip months after the 22 days of Israeli military operations there had ceased.

Prof. Busby is one of the most prominent and widely respected radiation experts in the world, and an accredited witness on international fora such as the UN. In the past, he has testified on the impact of weapons used in wars in Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon. The Israeli authorities prevented Professor Busby from entering the occupied Gaza Strip to undertake the necessary analyses, but with the help of other physicians he was able to obtain the samples he needed.

The professor said that he had obtained two items to analyze, one of which was a filter from an ambulance covered with dust, and the second was some soil from a hole created by an Israeli bomb. He stated that the analysis showed the filter to contain a degree of uranium, and that the soil sample contained a high degree of enriched uranium. Analysis also showed a high degree of zinc, chrome, and niobium in the air. This is not the first analysis carried out by Professor Busby; he also discovered a high rate of uranium in Lebanon after examining samples from the area in the wake of the Israeli aggression of July 2006.

Say what? 22 days of Israeli military operations?

Ah...they are referring to Cast Lead!

To give an idea of how reliable Busby is, after he accused Israel of using depleted uranium in Lebanon in 2006 ,  he was proven wrong.

By the UN!

UN experts have found no evidence to support a press report that Israel used depleted uranium (DU) munitions during the July-August conflict in Lebanon, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) says. "The samples taken by the UNEP scientists show no evidence of penetrators or metal made of DU or other radioactive material," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. "In addition, no DU shrapnel, or other radioactive residue was found. The analysis of all smear samples taken shows no DU, nor enriched uranium nor higher than natural uranium content in the samples." The UNEP statement said inspectors looking specifically at the DU issue had visited 32 sites south and north of the Litani River.

In October, the British Independent quoted Chris Busby, the British scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, as saying that craters at Khiam and At-Tiri in southern Lebanon caused by Israeli bombs showed "elevated radiation signatures." (AFP/ABC-Australia)

Oh, but Busby is not just a overly zealous scientist. He is a well-known crank and a fraud.

You see, Busby has made a career out of finding radioactive dangers all over the world, where no one else can find it. He even hawked special, expensive, and worthless vitamins for Japanese after Fukushima. His theories about the dangers of low-level radiation have been disproven quite categorically - every single scientist on a panel to investigate his claims disagreed with his conclusions.

And guess where else he found "evidence of a nuclear explosion"? Where all conspiracy-theory cranks go: 9/11.

So not only is the PRCS - a supposedly non-political, humanitarian organization - digging up old discredited claims about Israel, but they are quoting a well-known fraud.

(h/t Gaia)