If you support this concept, no matter where you're from, please hit the reply button and give us your endorsement. This could help a great deal.<br>
<br>
Last year we received endorsements from 43 organizations on a letter to the Senators. See <a href="http://prop1.org/prop1/letter.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/prop1/letter.htm</a>. Hopefully we will do as well or better with this year's effort to get the idea introduced into the Senate. We also need to get HR-2503 out of the U.S. House International Relations and Armed Services Committees, and onto the floor for discussion and vote. Your help is much needed.<br>
<br>
Thanks for a quick reply....<br>
<br>
Ellen Thomas<br>
<br>
------------ Letter to Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, for Sign-On -----------<br>
<br>
September, 2001<br>
<br>
Senator Paul Wellstone<x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab><x-tab> </x-tab>Fax: 202-224-8438<br>
Secretary of Energy <br>
717 Hart SOB <x-tab> </x-tab><br>
Washington, D.C. 20510<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
<br>
Dear Senator Wellstone:<br>
<br>
We found it surprising when one of your aides said recently that he thinks introducing a Senate version of HR-2503, the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act," is an "impractical" idea. See <a href="http://prop1.org/prop1/hr2503.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/prop1/hr2503.htm</a>. <br>
<br>
Last year one of your aides said that you would probably support Delegate Norton's "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" if Jesse Helms weren't Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He said that you were concerned about veterans' issues, primarily, but might be convinced that this bill was worth co-introducing with other Senators. Jesse Helms is no longer Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. If we can tell other Senators that you will co-introduce with them, this will help us get further support.<br>
<br>
To respond to the aide's dismissal that the idea is "impractical": 187 countries, including the U.S., promised in May, 2000, to abolish nuclear weapons, but haven't set a date. Our purpose here is to make it happen, to make global nuclear disarmament the LAW. Treaties aren't enforceable unless backed by national laws. National laws rarely happen without regional or local initiatives. We have proven that most people from every region of the country and the Earth favor global nuclear disarmament. This is do-able. It requires visionary thinking, a touch of faith, and a large portion of hope. What else is America about?<br>
<br>
Let me explain how HR-2503 would work. It would be a statement to the world that the U.S. is serious about global nuclear disarmament. It is a promise that the U.S. will get rid of its nuclear weapons IF everyone else does; and will use the money saved to shut down and clean up the nuclear weapons industries, and to begin converting other war industries into something good for society. For example, instead of building missiles and bombs, factories could be retooled and people could be paid to mass-produce solar panels, windmills, hydrogen fuel cells ... an entirely new, massively profitable industry which can transform all our societies. No one need lose. HR-2503 is entirely a win-win idea. <br>
<br>
I would like a personal meeting, as a fellow Minnesotan, to discuss this.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Ellen Thomas<br>
Executive Director<br>
</font><font face="Century" size=2>PROPOSITION ONE COMMITTEE<br>
<p>The link to the sample message to senators in today's LAM was incorrect.
<br>The correct
<br>link is <<a href="http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=49359&type=CO&azip=">http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=49359&type=CO&azip=</a>>.
you will find a link to "Reflections on September 11, 2001" by Arjun Makhijani, along with other recent postings to IEER's web site. The piece is also pasted below, but I encourage you to go to the web version, which contains links to some of the referenced items. Apologies for double postings.<br>
Lisa Ledwidge, IEER<br>
<div align="center">
<br>
<b>Reflections on September 11, 2001<br>
</b>by Arjun Makhijani <br>
20 September 2001<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.<br>
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth.<br>
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate.<br>
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that....<br>
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. <br>
<br>
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.<br>
Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion, such that it covers all the elements of the society and makes itself irresistible. <br>
Satyagraha is a relentless search for truth and a determination to search truth. <br>
Satyagraha is an attribute of the spirit within. <br>
Satyagraha has been designed as an effective substitute for violence.<br>
-- Mahatma Gandhi<br>
<br>
<br>
The destruction of the World Trade Center towers and a part of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, was more than an attack<br>
on the symbols of financial and military power of the United States. It was more than what the media have called an "Attack on<br>
America." It was mass murder of people from around the world. The flames of fear and sorrow and tears spread rapidly across<br>
the oceans and north and south across the Americas that day. U.S. as well as international phone lines to New York and<br>
Washington were jammed. People from more than fifty countries were among those who perished along with thousands of<br>
Americans. No goal, however lofty, can justify the murder of innocent people.<br>
<br>
People from around the world are grieving and share the immense sadness of the families and friends of the victims of the<br>
tragedies. The staff of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) grieves with them. I have written this message<br>
and these suggestions for resistance to violence and terror and militarism at the instance of and on behalf of the entire IEER staff. <br>
<br>
The September 11 events of global terror cry out for and deserve a global response to help make the world as secure as we can<br>
from the threat of mass destruction. This was not the first or the most devastating event of mass destruction. As is well known, air<br>
warfare was created in the twentieth century as an instrument of state terror to entirely neutralize or destroy "vital centers" - that is,<br>
cities, thereby obliterating the difference between combatants and non-combatants in war. (A brief history of air warfare doctrine<br>
is posted on IEER's website.) Nuclear weapons extended the terror of conventional explosive bombing and fire bombing to a new<br>
dimension. But September 11, 2001 has nonetheless created a dreadful watershed in world history. The preponderance of<br>
evidence indicates that a non-state party, a terrorist network, has now used civilian aircraft as weapons of mass destruction to kill<br>
thousands.<br>
<br>
The possibility that terrorists may create destruction on a vast scale has until now been postulated in studies and hinted at by many<br>
actual acts of terrorism such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the 1993 bombing of<br>
the World Trade Center, and the 1995 chemical attack on a Tokyo subway. But the enormous scale and coordination of the<br>
assault, the choice of targets, the years of preparation, and the results of the September 11, 2001 attack mean that what was once<br>
largely hypothetical has moved into the column of grim reality.<br>
<br>
The risk of continued terrorist attack remains, according to the U.S. government. Retributive violence would add to the risks of<br>
continued terrorism, and it may also add to the risk of escalation to the use of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons by a<br>
terrorist group. We do not know if some non-state groups already have nuclear materials. And we do not know how much they<br>
might have, if they do. Specifically, instability and conflict in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, over cooperation with U.S. military<br>
actions might have unpredictable consequences. <br>
<br>
It is imperative that we try to persuade the U.S. government against a policy of violence and for a process that will lead to capture<br>
of the suspects and a trial. Moreover, if eradication of terrorism is the overall goal, a trial of the suspected plotters and financiers<br>
would reveal more about how terror networks are organized and maintained than a violent elimination of the suspects. The<br>
Nuremberg trials not only brought many of the perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice but also revealed great detail about how it<br>
was organized and implemented. They also led to important advances in international law. A trial in relation to the September 11<br>
attacks would also show the world the best side of the traditions of the United States: the struggle for the rule of law and justice<br>
that motivated the American constitution, which has inspired not only generations of Americans but also freedom fighters<br>
worldwide.<br>
<br>
But we need more than a trial. We need a process will lead to a progressive diminution of the conflicts and hatreds that lead up to<br>
acts of terror and indiscriminate killing. It is widely recognized that they are rooted in the terrible injustices and inequities that<br>
characterize our world. Reducing violence requires a reduction in militarism and repression by states and a systematic reduction of<br>
the great inequities in the world, so that people can have hope instead of despair. One analysis and discussion of the world<br>
economic and military structure as a kind of global apartheid (with some important differences) can be found in a July 9, 2001<br>
article in The Nation by Salih Booker and William Minter. Another can be found in my book, From Global Capitalism to<br>
Economic Justice, (Apex Press, 1992, reprinted in 1996), along with a discussion of possible approaches to reduce global<br>
inequity and violence.<br>
<br>
Given the level, scale and geographical spread of inequity, injustice, and anger in the world, it is likely that violent retribution by the<br>
United States would lead to global disunity and more conflict. It would increase the likelihood of more terrorist attacks, possibly<br>
more devastating ones. Such a prospect would be made more likely if U.S. retribution produces large-scale civilian casualties.<br>
<br>
Oil is and has been, through much of the twentieth century, one of the central aspects to the violent tangle of Middle Eastern,<br>
Central Asian, U.S., and world politics. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came after the U.S. imposed an oil embargo to<br>
prevent Japan from getting access to and eventual control of Indonesian oil, which belonged neither to Japan, nor to the United<br>
States, nor to the Dutch colonialists who then ruled Indonesia. As another example, the CIA-supported overthrow of an elected<br>
government in Iran in 1953 (in reaction to nationalization of the Iranian oil industry) and its replacement by the Shah of Iran led to<br>
two and a half decades of repression in which substantial dissent was only possible in the mosques. The process was central to the<br>
dynamic that led up to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. For an excellent history of oil politics, see Daniel Yergin, The Prize:<br>
The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991). For a fine, recent analysis of Central<br>
Asian oil resources and U.S. policy see Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, (New York:<br>
Metropolitan Books, 2001).<br>
<br>
Much U.S. policy in the Middle East makes for alliances with undemocratic regimes, including the one in Saudi Arabia, where, as<br>
in Afghanistan, no freedom of religion is allowed. That the Saudi Islamic government has allowed the stationing of U.S. troops in<br>
Saudi Arabia, which has the two places most sacred to Muslims as well as the largest oil reserves in the world, has been in the<br>
center of the anger of some Islamic militants of the region. (See for instance a TV interview with Osama bin Laden partly<br>
conducted by ABC news correspondent John Miller in 1998. See also Mary Ann Weaver's article on Osama bin Laden in the<br>
New Yorker and John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, Second Edition,<br>
(London, Pluto Press, 2000).) And as is increasingly recognized, those angry militants largely come from the phase of U.S. policy<br>
that funded and trained them in the 1980s to oust the Soviet military from Afghanistan. Later, the Taliban was partly funded by<br>
Saudi Arabia until the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. (For a brief history of the Taliban, see<br>
Ahmed Rashid, "The Taliban: Exporting Extremism," Foreign Affairs, November/December 1999, pp. 22-35).<br>
<br>
If retribution and violence are the wrong answers, how can the people of the world work together to pursue justice and increased<br>
security? Active, non-violent resistance to evil that goes to the root of the problem in a manner that everyone could participate<br>
was the hallmark of the Gandhian struggle for India's independence, known as Satyagraha, as it was of the U.S. civil rights<br>
movement, and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Making salt, making cloth, and desegregating lunch counters and buses<br>
were everyday acts that mobilized millions.<br>
<br>
The Gandhian struggle in India had a part of its inspiration in U.S. history - in the acts of Henry David Thoreau in the<br>
mid-nineteenth century to resist an unjust war and slavery. The civil rights struggle led by Martin Luther King, inspired in part by<br>
Gandhi's example, was non-violent resistance to injustice returning to the United States. This rich history can perhaps provide us<br>
with the inspiration we need in these grim and sad days to find ways to resist the violence both from weapons of mass destruction<br>
but also from injustice and exploitation that has come to characterize global society. More than five hundred million children<br>
have died needless deaths from starvation, lack of clean water, and lack of elementary medical care since World War II.<br>
At the same time, the wealthiest 400 people control more wealth than the poorest two billion. Maintenance of such inequalities<br>
requires a vast and global repressive machinery that has led to many valiant struggles for justice, but also bred hopelessness,<br>
anger, and hate.<br>
<br>
October 2 is Gandhi's birthday. Perhaps it can be a day when we can all reflect on what we might do individually, in our<br>
communities, and on a global scale to resist militarism and violence, whether it comes from non-state groups or from states and to<br>
help create security, peace and justice. <br>
<br>
For instance, one way in which those of us who live in the West and consume more than our fair share of fossil fuels can resist the<br>
cynical and militarist politics of oil be to reduce our petroleum consumption as much as we can. A 25 percent reduction in oil<br>
consumption in the wealthy countries would amount to about 10 million barrels a day - more than the production of Saudi Arabia,<br>
which is the world's largest oil exporter. That could change the face of oil politics. While we cannot completely eliminate the use of<br>
oil in short and medium term - it would cause immense economic dislocation and suffering - significant voluntary reduction of oil<br>
consumption as well as sensible policies to that same end could help create a direction of greater equity, security, and<br>
environmental sanity. The soldiers who may be sent to fight in the desert sands, or those who are already there, with oil as a prime<br>
objective, would breathe easier too. (For an analysis of the proposed Bush administration energy policy and for IEER's energy<br>
policy recommendations see Science for Democratic Action, vol. 9 number 4, August 2001)<br>
<br>
Another idea that has been put forth is to send food to the villages of Afghanistan instead of bombs. That act of love might create<br>
cooperation from the heart that may increase the chance that there will be a trial instead of cycles of escalating violence. The<br>
official rhetoric in Washington makes it seem unlikely that the U.S. government would, at this stage, take actions friendly to the<br>
people of Afghanistan - indeed it is in the contrary direction.<br>
<br>
How people to people diplomacy might be conducted around the world to create a direction of peace at time when the talk of<br>
war is so loud is a major challenge, to say the least. But Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress, and the people of South<br>
Africa joined by people all over the world used Gandhi as an inspiration to get rid of apartheid in South Africa. We now need a<br>
bigger struggle that taps into the same roots to get rid of global apartheid.<br>
<br>
It will take the cooperation of organizations and people of goodwill around the world to rise to the challenge. We might begin this<br>
October 2 by gathering in our communities to remember those who died in a common global disaster and to ponder what we<br>
might do together across national boundaries that would honor the global nature of the tragedy and prevent its repetition. At<br>
meetings around the world on that date, we might gather to consider the questions of justice and of finding a path away from<br>
global apartheid, global violence and militarism, whether by states or terrorist groups, and towards global democracy, justice,<br>
equity, and friendship. <br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Lisa Ledwidge<br>
Outreach Coordinator and Editor, <i>Science for Democratic Action<br>
</i>Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)<br>
2104 Stevens Ave. South | Minneapolis, MN 55404 USA<br>
John Hallam, Friends of the Earth, Sydney, Australia, <a href="mailto:nonukes@foesyd.org.au" eudora="autourl">mailto:nonukes@foesyd.org.au</a> <br>
<br>
John LaForge, Nukewatch, P.O. Box 649, Luck, WI 54853, <a href="mailto:nukewatch@lakeland.ws" eudora="autourl">mailto:nukewatch@lakeland.ws</a><br>
<br>
Carol Wolman, Nuclear Peace Action Group of Mendocino, CA, <a href="mailto:cwolman@mcn.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:cwolman@mcn.org</a> <br>
<br>
Bill Smirnow, Nuclear Free New York, Huntington, New York, <a href="mailto:smirnowb@ix.netcom.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:smirnowb@ix.netcom.com</a> <br>
<br>
Clive Fudge, several organizations, Norwich, England, <a href="mailto:clivef55@hotmail.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:clivef55@hotmail.com</a> <br>
<br>
John Ragsdale, Retired Teacher, San Bernardino, CA 92404, <a href="mailto:JAR1Puggy@webtv.net" eudora="autourl">mailto:JAR1Puggy@webtv.net</a><br>
<br>
Sal Mangiagli, Board Member, Citizens Awareness Network, <a href="mailto:ctcan@snet.net" eudora="autourl">mailto:ctcan@snet.net</a><br>
<br>
Paula Elofson-Gardine, Environmental Information Network, Lakewood, CO, USA<br>
John P. Shannon, Former Scientist for the Navy Nuclear Program, <a href="mailto:Jacksha1@aol.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:Jacksha1@aol.com</a><br>
<br>
Patricia Watson, Editor, Peacework, American Friends Service Committee, Cambridge, MA 02140, <a href="mailto:pwork@igc.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:pwork@igc.org</a>| <a href="http://www.afsc.org/peacewrk.htm" eudora="autourl">www.afsc.org/peacewrk.htm</a><br>
<br>
Mary Olson, Southeast Office Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Asheville, NC USA, <a href="mailto:nirs.se@mindspring.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:nirs.se@mindspring.com</a> | <a href="http://www.nirs.org/" eudora="autourl">www.nirs.org</a><br>
<br>
Harry Rogers, Carolina Peace Resource Center, Columbia SC, <a href="mailto:cprcrogers@mindspring.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:cprcrogers@mindspring.com</a> <br>
<br>
M. Lindsey Hagood, Standup For Democracy,Washington,DC, <a href="mailto:linh26@juno.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:linh26@juno.com</a><br>
<br>
Gregor, for Shundahai Network, Pahrump NV 89041 <br>
Joan Norman, Greenpeace, Save the Redwoods, Boycott the Gap, Peninsula Peace and Freedom Party, Sunnyvale, CA, 94087 <a href="mailto:jndefender@home.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:jndefender@home.com</a><br>
<br>
Makoto KONDO, Associate Professor of GIFU UNIVERSITY (Constitutional Law), Gifu City, JAPAN, <a href="mailto:mKondo@cc.gifu-u.ac.jp" eudora="autourl">mailto:mKondo@cc.gifu-u.ac.jp</a> <br>
<br>
Tatiana A. Kostanian, MHONA International, <a href="mailto:mhona@linex.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:mhona@linex.com</a> <br>
<br>
Mitzi and Peter Bowman, Don't Waste Connecticut, New Haven Ct. USA <br>
Alan Haber, Megiddo Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan, <a href="mailto:megiddo@umich.edu" eudora="autourl">mailto:megiddo@umich.edu</a><br>
<br>
Jim Schulman, Sustainable Community Initiatives, Washington, DC 20002, <a href="mailto:jschulman@igc.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:jschulman@igc.org</a><br>
Frank H. Lucido MD, member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Berkeley, CA, USA, <a href="mailto:drfrank@well.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:drfrank@well.com</a><br>
<br>
Elizabeth McAllister, et al, Jonah House, Baltimore, MD, <a href="mailto:disarmnow@aol.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:disarmnow@aol.com</a><br>
<br>
Irene Gale AM, Australian Peace Committee (South Australian Branch) , <br>
Annie Wildwood, Cotati, CA, <a href="mailto:livefunny@earthlink.net" eudora="autourl">mailto:livefunny@earthlink.net</a> <br>
<br>
[PSR/Atlanta is sending its own letter, a straightforward request for support. Tom Ferguson <a href="mailto:tferguson8@aol.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:tferguson8@aol.com</a>]<br>
</font></html>
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Subject: (abolition-usa) Lunev: Attacks Against America Are Not Over, Bush Must Warn Rogue States of Nuclear Retaliation, Russia Increases Military Buildup
Date: 23 Sep 2001 22:07:32 -0700
"Your assignment, should you decide to accept it...
...this tape will self-destruct in...."
[see end, after 3 articles, excerpts:]
Col. Stanislav Lunev:
"I also warned the American government that I believe Russia has already
smuggled small nuclear devices into the U.S.
"I have no doubt that Russia has been behind many of these terrorist groups,
financing and equipping them"
---
"These groups clearly have received sufficient funds, supplies, support and
hospitality from rogue nations--all of whom have close ties to Russia's
military and intelligence agencies.
"Intelligence experts have told me that there are more than 5,000
highly-trained terrorists in the U.S. and Europe who are in permanent
readiness for new attacks against the civilized world."
----
"While Washington talks about building a closer relationship with Russia's
President Vladimir Putin, Moscow continues its military buildup by
developing and deploying new generations of its weapons systems. Many of
these systems, if not all of them, were especially designed for a war
against the U.S. and its friends and allies - in other words, to kill
Americans.
"According to media reports, at the end of last year a third group of the
new
intercontinental nuclear missile "Topol-M" was deployed at a base in the
southwest, as a part of Moscow efforts to make this the rugged, extremely
hard-to-detect weapon the backbone of its nuclear forces.
"A regiment at the Tatischevo base in the Saratov region was equipped with
SS-27 (NATO classification for "Topol-M"), which was designed for the
penetration of an American National Missile Defense system (NMD) if it ever
<li>Quotes of Gandhi - <a href="http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2quot.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2quot.html</a>
<li>Sample letters to the editor - <a href="http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2ltrs.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2ltrs.html</a>
<li>Sample press release for local meeting - <a href="http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2prel.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.ieer.org/latest/oct2prel.html</a>
<li>Holding an event? Questions? Feedback? Please contact: Gordon Clark at <coordinator@ieer.org> or call 1-301-270-5500
</ul>Apologies for multiple postings.</html>
--=====================_20220123==_.ALT--
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