Ministry of Defense Admits It Irradiated Civilians in Cold War Nuclear Weapons Tests, but Still Denies Vets Were Harmed

The headline on this story is horrifying enough but after admitting these atrocities this government denies the very same tests harmed veterans.

What the Hell?

Via The Mirror:

The Ministry of Defence has admitted ­thousands of civilian staff were irradiated in nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War. But it still denies that veterans of the nuclear tests, which began in 1952 when Britain exploded its first device, were harmed.

A newly uncovered government study details the death and cancer rates of 174,541 people who were exposed to radiation at nuclear facilities. Of those, 64,909 were employed by the MoD in non-military roles such as maintaining nuclear submarines and weapons.

This is more than three times as many people as were affected by Britain’s nuclear bomb tests on Christmas Island in the 1950s – veterans who are also subject to government studies, and have had their NHS records flagged by the MoD.

The study of civilians shows higher doses increased the risk of thyroid, lung and rectal cancers, leukaemia and heart disease. Yet while test veterans suffer the same cancers and have fathered children with 10 times the normal rate of birth defects, the Government spent millions fighting negligence claims.

This story doesn’t just perfectly illustrate how totally heartless a bureaucracy can be towards its populace.

This makes us realize, in no uncertain terms, that in denying responsibility for the treatment of their armed forces, the government regards those who protect their interests as property… just mere chattel to be used in their grisly experiments.

Henry Kissinger was attributed with saying that military men are “dumb, stupid animals to be used” as pawns for foreign policy.

And again, if they would do this to people back then, who knows what they’re doing right now as you read this because, let’s be honest, it isn’t as if our governments have gotten less corrupt and learned what empathy is over the last half a century…

Remember when Bill Clinton apologized for the U.S. government essentially doing the same thing during the same time period?

Who knows what our president and other heads of state will be “apologizing” for 50 years down the road…