In solidarity with anti-war groups around the nation, including CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Courage to Resist, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Global Exchange, Institute for Policy Studies' New Internationalism Project, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Pax Christi – USA, US Labor Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Voters for Peace, War Is a Crime, and other local and national groups,the Under the Hood staff, along with active duty soldiers, veterans, family members, legislators, local peace groups and other concerned citizens are planning a press conference on Monday, Aug. 30, at 10 a.m., at the Under the Hood Café & Outreach Center, 17 College St. (@ W. Ave. G), Killeen, to counter the current administration's claim that the conflict in Iraq is "over" and "success" has been achieved.

Depleted uranium (DU) ammunition as a probable cause of cancer, birth defects, and other multisymptom major illnesses surfaced at a July 27 House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing entitled “Gulf War Illness: The Future for Dissatisfied Veterans.”

During witness testimony, Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, noted that there are 250,000 ill Gulf War veterans and that the Department of Veterans Affairs “is not listening to our concerns about our illnesses associated with our deployment to the 1991 Gulf War. VA does not listen to advisory panels created by Congress or VA.VA does not listen to expert scientists. VA does not even listen to Congress.”

Depleted uranium, radioactive toxic waste that is a by-product of uranium enrichment, was first used in 1973 in the Yom Kippur war when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the U.S. government gave it to Israel to use on the Arabs. It is now used in Afghanistan and Iran, plus some European countries. Extensive studies by scientists have indicated that exposure to DU aerosols from DU munitions before and after they are exploded are poisoning soldiers at the scene and civilians who remain in their countries, since radiation contamination lasts for many years once it gets into the air, soil, and water. Some describe the spread of the material as genocide.

What looks like a guillotine is actually a wooden jig designed to bend metal into a curve. The bending device is one of several located at the new keyhole garden manufacturing plant in Acton, a small community next door to Granbury, Texas. Keyhole gardens are a fairly new concept that received a major promotion when school children in Lesotho, Africa built one to sustain their lives in an area that did not eagerly accept gardening.