ftp.xmission.com/2014.06.ftp.xmission.com.tar/ftp.xmission.com/pub/lists/abolition-usa/archive/abolition-usa.9808

Internet Message Format | 1998-08-30 | 351KB

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: [DOEWatch] Insights into the RF Lowry Landfill leaking
Date: 01 Aug 1998 07:26:48 -0500 (CDT)

----

I usually don't send anything other than Ward Valley info to this list
but
this information really needs to get out there!!

Subj:     ROCKY FLATS PLUTONIUM IN YOUR FOOD?

Think I'm kidding?

The EPA and major corporate and government polluters at a huge Colorado
Superfund site, the Lowry Landfill, have cooked up a scheme to pipe
Superfund waste into the public sewer lines, whereupon it would be
mixed
with the Denver metro area's municipal and industrial sludge and other
Superfund site wastes, and called "biosolids".  From there, it will be
hauled by truck east on Interstate 70 to the tiny rural farming
community of
Deer Trail, where it will be spread as "fertilizer" on agricultural
land
owned by the sewage district.  Wheat and other crops for human
consumption
are grown here, sold to Cargill food conglomerate and ground into flour
to
make "specialty baked goods" and other products for sale throughout the
US
and presumedly abroad.

What have we learned, digging through state and federal files?

The Lowry Landfill is saturated with PLUTONIUM, AMERICIUM, CESIUM,
CERIUM
and other radionuclides, in solution with liquid hazardous wastes
including
scores of solvents, pesticides, dioxin, etc.  ROCKY FLATS USED THE LAND
NOW
KNOWN AS THE LOWRY LANDFILL TO DUMP ITS WASTE IN THE 60's and 70's
ECORDS>SHOW, BUT THE EPA HAS TRIED TO DENY THIS AND COVER IT UP.  The
plutonium has contaminated groundwater down to 200 feet below the
landfill
and has been consistently found in the surface water, sediment, and
soil
throughout and around the site.

EPA says it's "cosmic dust" from "outer space".

if you'd like to read about our campaign to stop this madness, search
the
BOULDER WEEKLY for a series of articles (keywords "plutonium" or
"sludge",
and a recent Special Report by the Christian Science Monitor in their
June
10th issue, online at:

        http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/06/10/p1s5.htm

As a member of the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District board of
directors
("Metro"), I filed a whistleblower case under 4 major environmental
laws on
behalf of the sewage plant workers I had been appointed to represent
(Oil,
Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union), which is pending before
the
Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board.

We need your support!  Please e-mail us with any ideas, resources,
notes of
support, etc.

Sincerely,
Adrienne Anderson
Save Ward Valley
107 F St.
Needles, CA  92363
ph. 760/326-6267
fax [phone]
http://www.shundahai.org/SWVAction.html
http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley
http://www.ctaz.com/~swv1
http://banwaste.envirolink.org
http://www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html
http://www.wildrockies.org/cmcr
http://www.greenaction.org

Mailing-List: list [e-mail]; contact http://www.onelist.com
_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews 7/31/98: Classified Documents on Nukes (Washington
Date: 01 Aug 1998 09:28:50 -0400

You are invited to respond to this story by Spokane Net:

http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=073098&ID=s428170

                 Cold War finally ends for Hanford reactors
                 Final production complex deactivated in 4-year project

                 Associated Press - Spokane Net - July 30, 1998

                 RICHLAND, Wash. _ The last Cold War plutonium production
                 reactor on the Hanford nuclear reservation has been
                 deactivated, ending a four-year, $116 million project.

                 Pieces of nuclear fuel, contaminated water and most of the
                 equipment were removed from the N Reactor complex, and
                 entrances to the contaminated areas and buildings were
sealed.

                 ``I'm glad to get it done,'' said Heather Trumble, the
Department
                 of Energy's N Basin project manager.

                 The reactor, which operated from 1963 to 1987, is to
                 eventually be ``cocooned'' -- where several dozen outlying
                 buildings would be torn down and the reactor chamber sealed.

                 Deactivation of the reactor's spent-fuel cooling basin was
                 formally completed last week, but final work was finished
                 Tuesday.

                 The N Reactor area contains slightly more than 100 buildings.
                 About nine have been demolished, and 83 have been cleaned
                 out and closed, said Paul Pak, DOE senior project manager for
                 the N Reactor area project.

                 The few remaining buildings will hold tools and equipment for
                 other river area projects.

                 The biggest headache was the N Basin, which is a few hundred
                 yards from the Columbia River and is similar to Hanford's
                 infamous K Basins. The N Basin's two connected pools are 24
                 feet deep and held 1 million gallons of contaminated
water. The
                 pools held about 350 pounds of chips and pieces of spent
                 nuclear fuel.

                 The work was complicated because of the basin's bottom
                 design and murky water that made it difficult to see what was
                 under water, said Phil Staats, the state Department of
Ecology
                 project manager.

                 The problem was fixed in May 1997 when the proper filters
                 were installed.

                 The N Reactor is last in line among Hanford's reactors to be
                 cocooned, although no schedule has been set, said Tom Logan,
                 N Area project manager for Bechtel Hanford Inc., the project
                 contractor.

What are your thoughts on Cold War finally ends for Hanford reactors?

If you have a comment or reply to this story that you'd like to share, fill
in the form and click submit. Note: Replies are limited to 250 words and
must be signed with a valid email address. No profanity or libelous
statements will be printed.

http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=073098&ID=s428170
_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews 7/30/98: Cold War finally ends for Hanford reactors
Date: 01 Aug 1998 09:31:09 -0400

You are invited to respond to this story by Spokane Net at the website below:

http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=073098&ID=s428170

                 Cold War finally ends for Hanford reactors
                 Final production complex deactivated in 4-year project

                 Associated Press - Spokane Net - July 30, 1998

                 RICHLAND, Wash. _ The last Cold War plutonium production
                 reactor on the Hanford nuclear reservation has been
                 deactivated, ending a four-year, $116 million project.

                 Pieces of nuclear fuel, contaminated water and most of the
                 equipment were removed from the N Reactor complex, and
                 entrances to the contaminated areas and buildings were
sealed.

                 ``I'm glad to get it done,'' said Heather Trumble, the
Department
                 of Energy's N Basin project manager.

                 The reactor, which operated from 1963 to 1987, is to
                 eventually be ``cocooned'' -- where several dozen outlying
                 buildings would be torn down and the reactor chamber sealed.

                 Deactivation of the reactor's spent-fuel cooling basin was
                 formally completed last week, but final work was finished
                 Tuesday.

                 The N Reactor area contains slightly more than 100 buildings.
                 About nine have been demolished, and 83 have been cleaned
                 out and closed, said Paul Pak, DOE senior project manager for
                 the N Reactor area project.

                 The few remaining buildings will hold tools and equipment for
                 other river area projects.

                 The biggest headache was the N Basin, which is a few hundred
                 yards from the Columbia River and is similar to Hanford's
                 infamous K Basins. The N Basin's two connected pools are 24
                 feet deep and held 1 million gallons of contaminated
water. The
                 pools held about 350 pounds of chips and pieces of spent
                 nuclear fuel.

                 The work was complicated because of the basin's bottom
                 design and murky water that made it difficult to see what was
                 under water, said Phil Staats, the state Department of
Ecology
                 project manager.

                 The problem was fixed in May 1997 when the proper filters
                 were installed.

                 The N Reactor is last in line among Hanford's reactors to be
                 cocooned, although no schedule has been set, said Tom Logan,
                 N Area project manager for Bechtel Hanford Inc., the project
                 contractor.

What are your thoughts on Cold War finally ends for Hanford reactors?

If you have a comment or reply to this story that you'd like to share, fill
in the form and click submit. Note: Replies are limited to 250 words and
must be signed with a valid email address. No profanity or libelous
statements will be printed.

http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=073098&ID=s428170
_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews 7/30/98: Savannah River plutonium plant: opinions
Date: 01 Aug 1998 09:37:30 -0400

The following was published in the Savannah Morning News, applauding the
plutonium plant at the Savannah River site.  They invite you to respond
(see end of the article).

http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/073198/OPEDone.html

               Nuclear plowshares

               THE ENERGY Department's decision to build a
               $500-million plutonium conversion plant at the Savannah
               River Site about 100 miles upriver from Savannah is a
               major boost to the surrounding economy and to the
               future of the former nuclear weapons plant.

               It means that the sprawling 300-square-mile facility will
               carry on peacetime nuclear work, including cleanup and
               storage of radioactive debris, for at least another 30
               years.

               The latest activity to be located at SRS will convert
               weapons-grade plutonium taken from nuclear warheads
               into a powdery, mixed-oxide fuel usable in commercial
               nuclear reactors. SRS won out over federal nuclear
               plants in Texas, Idaho and Washington state.

               The project, which will create 500 new jobs, will cost
               between $1.8 billion and $2.3 billion over 25 years, much
               of it for building and operating the conversion plant. The
               plant is expected to produce its first MOX fuel sometime
               in 2007.

               It has not yet been decided where the plutonium will be
               separated from warheads, but it will either be at SRS or
               at the Pantex complex near Amarillo, Texas.

               So far, the odds seem to favor SRS. Energy Department
               estimates show that building the separation plant at SRS
               would cost $920 million compared with $980 million to
               build it at Pantex. The Pantex plant has been dismantling
               nuclear warheads for several years at the rate of some
               2,000 per year.

               The Energy Department announced last year it would
               pursue a "dual strategy" for disposal of about 50 metric
               tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium left over from
               years of warhead production and stockpiling during the
               Cold War.

               About 8 tons of the highly radioactive plutonium will be
               encased in glass -- so-called vitrification. That work has
               been going on in a new plant at SRS for more than a
               year.

               The glass cylinders will eventually be stored in a
               permanent underground facility, probably inside Yucca
               Mountain in the Nevada desert. But the rest of the
               weapons plutonium will be converted to MOX and used
               as fuel in commercial reactors.

               Low-level nuclear waste is slated for permanent storage
               inside a subterranean salt dome in New Mexico. When it
               opens, it will spell the end for storage at Barnwell, S.C.,
               and other "temporary" sites across the nation.

               Georgians and South Carolinians have lived with nuclear
               weapons production at the Savannah River Site for more
               than 50 years. All the early safety rules were
               experimental, posing both real and theoretical dangers to
               the general public.

               Yet there were no tragedies. As the conversion of nuclear
               weapons to peaceful purposes and the permanent storage
               of nuclear waste begins, Georgians and South
               Carolinians should be proud of their role in enduring
               diminished safety during the Cold War for the greater
               good of free world security.

               And now that the Cold War is over, the Energy
               Department must respect today's concerns related to
               SRS, particularly in regard to the quality of the water in
               the Savannah River.

               In the future, that river may be increasingly used to
               supply drinking water near the coast. While beating nukes
               into plowshares represents progress, it must not
               compromise safety.

               Web posted Friday, July 31, 1998
               Do you have a story idea or would you like to comment on a
story?

Opinions/Editorials: Tom Barton, Editorial Page Editor
<[e-mail]>
http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/special/staff/savannahstaff.html


_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peter Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) [Fwd: A wonderful, moving essay by Arundhati Roy]
Date: 03 Aug 1998 22:34:08 -0400

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Definitely worth reading.
                    Peter
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Saturday August 1, 1998    The Guardian (UK)=20

The end of imagination=20

Arundhati Roy took the literary world by storm last year with her first
novel, The God of Small Things, which won the Booker prize. In her first
piece of writing since then, she expresses her horror at the nuclear arms
race in her native India=20

"The desert shook," the Government of India informed us (its people).

"The whole mountain turned white," the Government of Pakistan replied.

By afternoon the wind had fallen silent over Pokhran. At 3.45pm, the time=
r
detonated the three devices. Around 200 to 300m deep in the earth, the he=
at
generated was equivalent to a million degrees centigrade - as hot as
temperatures on the sun. Instantly, rocks weighing around a thousand tons=
, a
mini mountain underground, vapourised=85 shockwaves from the blast began =
to
lift a mound of earth the size of a football field by several metres. One
scientist on seeing it said, "I can now believe stories of Lord Krishna
lifting a hill."

India Today

May 1998. It'll go down in history books, provided of course we have hist=
ory
books to go down in. Provided, of course, we have a future.

There's nothing new or original left to be said about nuclear weapons. Th=
ere
can be nothing more humiliating for a writer of fiction to have to do tha=
n
restate a case that has, over the years, already been made by other peopl=
e
in other parts of the world, and made passionately, eloquently and
knowledgeably.

I am prepared to grovel. To humiliate myself abjectly, because, in the
circumstances, silence would be indefensible. So those of you who are
willing: let's pick our parts, put on these discarded costumes and speak =
our
second-hand lines in this sad second-hand play. But let's not forget that
the stakes we're playing for are huge. Our fatigue and our shame could me=
an
the end of us. The end of our children and our children's children. Of
everything we love. We have to reach within ourselves and find the streng=
th
to think. To fight.

Once again we are pitifully behind the times - not just scientifically an=
d
technologically (ignore the hollow claims) but more pertinently in our
ability to grasp the true nature of nuclear weapons. Our Comprehension of
the Horror Department is hopelessly obsolete. Here we are, all of us in
India and in Pakistan, discussing the finer points of politics and foreig=
n
policy, behaving for all the world as though our governments have just
devised a newer, bigger bomb, a sort of immense hand grenade with which t=
hey
will annihilate the enemy (each other) and protect us from all harm.

How desperately we want to believe that. What wonderful, willing,
well-behaved, gullible subjects we have turned out to be. The rest of
humanity may not forgive us, but then the rest of the rest of humanity,
depending on who fashions its views, may not know what a tired, dejected,
heart-broken people we are. Perhaps it doesn't realise how urgently we ne=
ed
a miracle. How deeply we yearn for magic.

If only, if only nuclear war was just another kind of war. If only it was
about the usual things - nations and territories, gods and histories. If
only those of us who dread it are worthless moral cowards who are not
prepared to die in defence of our beliefs. If only nuclear war was the ki=
nd
of war in which countries battle countries, and men battle men. But it
isn't. If there is a nuclear war, our foes will not be China or America o=
r
even each other. Our foe will be the earth herself.

Our cities and forests, our fields and villages will burn for days. River=
s
will turn to poison. The air will become fire. The wind will spread the
flames. When everything there is to burn has burned and the fires die, sm=
oke
will rise and shut out the sun. The earth will be enveloped in darkness.
There will be no day - only interminable night.

What shall we do then, those of us who are still alive? Burned and blind =
and
bald and ill, carrying the cancerous carcasses of our children in our arm=
s,
where shall we go? What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we
breathe?

The Head of the Health, Environment and Safety Group of the Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre in Bombay has a plan. He declared that India could surviv=
e
nuclear war. His advice is that in the event of nuclear war we take the s=
ame
safety measures as the ones that scientists have recommended in the event=
 of
accidents at nuclear plants.

Take iodine pills, he suggests. And other steps such as remaining indoors=
,
consuming only stored water and food and avoiding milk. Infants should be
given powdered milk. "People in the danger zone should immediately go to =
the
ground floor and if possible to the basement."

What do you do with these levels of lunacy? What do you do if you're trap=
ped
in an asylum and the doctors are all dangerously deranged?

Ignore it, it's just a novelist's naivet=E9, they'll tell you, Doomsday
Prophet hyperbole. It'll never come to that. There will be no war. Nuclea=
r
weapons are about peace, not war. "Deterrence" is the buzz word of the
people who like to think of themselves as hawks. (Nice birds, those. Cool.
Stylish. Predatory. Pity there won't be many of them around after the war.
Extinction is a word we must try to get used to.) Deterrence is an old
thesis that has been resurrected and is being recycled with added local
flavour. The Theory of Deterrence cornered the credit for having prevente=
d
the cold war from turning into a third world war. The only immutable fact
about the third world war is that, if there's going to be one, it will be
fought after the second world war. In other words, there's no fixed sched=
ule.

The Theory of Deterrence has some fundamental flaws. Flaw Number One is t=
hat
it presumes a complete, sophisticated understanding of the psychology of
your enemy. It assumes that what deters you (the fear of annihilation) wi=
ll
deter them. What about those who are not deterred by that? The suicide
bomber psyche - the "We'll take you with us" school - is that an outlandi=
sh
thought? How did Rajiv Gandhi die?

In any case who's the "you" and who's the "enemy"? Both are only
governments. Governments change. They wear masks within masks. They moult
and re-invent themselves all the time. The one we have at the moment, for
instance, does not even have enough seats to last a full term in office, =
but
demands that we trust it to do pirouettes and party tricks with nuclear
bombs even as it scrabbles around for a foothold to maintain a simple
majority in Parliament.

Flaw Number Two is that deterrence is premised on fear. But fear is premi=
sed
on knowledge. On an understanding of the true extent and scale of the
devastation that nuclear war will wreak. It is not some inherent, mystica=
l
attribute of nuclear bombs that they automatically inspire thoughts of
peace. On the contrary, it is the endless, tireless, confrontational work=
 of
people who have had the courage to openly denounce them, the marches, the
demonstrations, the films, the outrage - that is what has averted, or
perhaps only postponed, nuclear war. Deterrence will not and cannot work
given the levels of ignorance and illiteracy that hang over our two
countries like dense, impenetrable veils.

India and Pakistan have nuclear bombs now and feel entirely justified in
having them. Soon others will too. Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Norw=
ay,
Nepal (I'm trying to be eclectic here), Denmark, Germany, Bhutan, Mexico,
Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bosnia, Singapore, North Korea, Sweden, South
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan=85 and why not? Every count=
ry in
the world has a special case to make. Everybody has borders and beliefs.

And when all our larders are bursting with shiny bombs and our bellies ar=
e
empty (deterrence is an exorbitant beast), we can trade bombs for food. A=
nd
when nuclear technology goes on the market, when it gets truly competitiv=
e
and prices fall, not just governments but anybody who can afford it can h=
ave
their own private arsenal - businessmen, terrorists, perhaps even the
occasional rich writer (like me). Our planet will bristle with beautiful
missiles. There will be a new world order. The dictatorship of the pro-nu=
ke
elite.

But let us pause to give credit where it's due. Who must we thank for all
this? The men who made it happen. The Masters of the Universe. Ladies and
gentlemen, the United States of America! Come on up here folks, stand up =
and
take a bow. Thank you for doing this to the world. Thank you for making a
difference. Thank you for showing us the way. Thank you for altering the
very meaning of life.

>From now on it is not dying we must fear, but living.

All I can say to every man, woman and sentient child in India, and over
there, just a little way away in Pakistan, is: take it personally. Whoeve=
r
you are - Hindu, Muslim, urban, agrarian - it doesn't matter. The only go=
od
thing about nuclear war is that it is the single most egalitarian idea th=
at
man has ever had. On the day of reckoning, you will not be asked to prese=
nt
your credentials. The devastation will be indiscriminate. The bomb isn't =
in
your backyard. It's in your body. And mine. Nobody, no nation, no
government, no man, no god has the right to put it there. We're radioacti=
ve
already, and the war hasn't even begun. So stand up and say something. Ne=
ver
mind if it's been said before. Speak up on your own behalf. Take it very
personally.

In early May (before the bomb), I left home for three weeks. I thought I
would return. I had every intention of returning. Of course things haven'=
t
worked out quite the way I had planned.

While I was away, I met a friend whom I have always loved for, among othe=
r
things, her ability to combine deep affection with a frankness that borde=
rs
on savagery. "I've been thinking about you," she said, "about The God of
Small Things - what's in it, what's over it, under it, around it, above i=
t=85"

She fell silent for a while. I was uneasy and not at all sure that I want=
ed
to hear the rest of what she had to say. She, however, was sure that she =
was
going to say it. "In this last year - less than a year actually - you've =
had
too much of everything - fame, money, prizes, adulation, criticism,
condemnation, ridicule, love, hate, anger, envy, generosity - everything.=
 In
some ways it's a perfect story. Perfectly baroque in its excess. The trou=
ble
is that it has, or can have, only one perfect ending."

Her eyes were on me, bright with a slanting, probing brilliance. She knew
that I knew what she was going to say. She was insane. She was going to s=
ay
that nothing that happened to me in the future could ever match the buzz =
of
this. That the whole of the rest of my life was going to be vaguely
unsatisfying. And, therefore, the only perfect ending to the story would =
be
death. My death.

The thought had occurred to me too. Of course it had. The fact that all
this, this global dazzle - these lights in my eyes, the applause, the
flowers, the photographers, the journalists feigning a deep interest in m=
y
life (yet struggling to get a single fact straight), the men in suits
fawning over me, the shiny hotel bathrooms with endless towels - none of =
it
was likely to happen again. Would I miss it? Had I grown to need it? Was =
I a
fame-junkie? Would I have withdrawal symptoms?

The more I thought about it, the clearer it became to me that if fame was
going to be my permanent condition it would kill me. Club me to death wit=
h
its good manners and hygiene. I'll admit that I've enjoyed my own five
minutes of it immensely, but primarily because it was just five minutes.
Because I knew (or thought I knew) that I could go home when I was bored =
and
giggle about it. Grow old and irresponsible. Eat mangoes in the moonlight.
Maybe write a couple of failed books - worstsellers - to see what it felt
like. For a whole year I've cartwheeled across the world, anchored always=
 to
thoughts of home and the life I would go back to.

Contrary to all the enquiries and predictions about my impending emigrati=
on,
that was the well I dipped into. That was my sustenance. My strength. I t=
old
my friend there was no such thing as a perfect story. I said that in any
case hers was an external view of things, this assumption that the
trajectory of a person's happiness, or let's say fulfilment, had peaked (=
and
now must trough) because she had accidentally stumbled upon "success". It
was premised on the unimaginative belief that wealth and fame were the
mandatory stuff of everybody's dreams.

You've lived too long in New York, I told her. There are other worlds. Ot=
her
kinds of dreams. Dreams in which failure is feasible, honourable, sometim=
es
even worth striving for. Worlds in which recognition is not the only
barometer of brilliance or human worth. There are plenty of warriors I kn=
ow
and love, people far more valuable than myself, who go to war each day,
knowing in advance that they will fail. True, they are less "successful" =
in
the most vulgar sense of the word, but by no means less fulfilled.

The only dream worth having, I told her, is to dream that you will live
while you're alive and die only when you're dead. (Prescience? Perhaps.)

"Which means exactly what?" (Arched eyebrows, a little annoyed.)

I tried to explain, but didn't do a very good job of it. Sometimes I need=
 to
write to think. So I wrote it down for her on a paper napkin. This is wha=
t I
wrote: To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To
never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of li=
fe
around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its la=
ir.
To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To
respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand.
To never look away. And never, never to forget.

I've known her for many years, this friend of mine. She's an architect to=
o.
She looked dubious, somewhat unconvinced by my paper napkin speech. I cou=
ld
tell that structurally, just in terms of the sleek, narrative symmetry of
things, and because she loves me, her thrill at my "success" was so keen,=
 so
generous, that it weighed in evenly with her (anticipated) horror at the
idea of my death. I understood that it was nothing personal=85 Just a des=
ign
thing.

Anyhow, two weeks after that conversation, I returned to India. To what I
think/thought of as home. Something had died but it wasn't me. It was
infinitely more precious. It was a world that has been ailing for a while=
,
and has finally breathed its last. It's been cremated now. The air is thi=
ck
with ugliness and there's the unmistakable stench of fascism on the breez=
e.

Day after day, in newspaper editorials, on the radio, on TV chat shows, o=
n
MTV for heaven's sake, people whose instincts one thought one could trust=
 -
writers, painters, journalists - make the crossing. The chill seeps into =
my
bones as it becomes painfully apparent from the lessons of everyday life
that what you read in history books is true. That fascism is indeed as mu=
ch
about people as about governments. That it begins at home. In drawing roo=
ms.
In bedrooms. In beds.

"Explosion of self-esteem", "Road to Resurgence", "A Moment of Pride", th=
ese
were headlines in the papers in the days following the nuclear tests. "We
have proved that we are not eunuchs any more," said Mr Thackeray of the S=
hiv
Sena (Whoever said we were? True, a good number of us are women, but that=
,
as far as I know, isn't the same thing.) Reading the papers, it was often
hard to tell when people were referring to Viagra (which was competing fo=
r
second place on the front pages) and when they were talking about the bom=
b -
"We have superior strength and potency." (This was our Minister for Defen=
ce
after Pakistan completed its tests.)

"These are not just nuclear tests, they are nationalism tests," we were
repeatedly told.

This has been hammered home, over and over again. The bomb is India. Indi=
a
is the bomb. Not just India, Hindu India. Therefore, be warned, any
criticism of it is not just ant-national but anti-Hindu. (Of course in
Pakistan the bomb is Islamic. Other than that, politically, the same phys=
ics
applies.) This is one of the unexpected perks of having a nuclear bomb. N=
ot
only can the government use it to threaten the Enemy, they can use it to
declare war on their own people. Us.

When I told my friends that I was writing this piece, they cautioned me. =
"Go
ahead," they said, "but first make sure you're not vulnerable. Make sure
your papers are in order. Make sure your taxes are paid."

My papers are in order. My taxes are paid. But how can one not be vulnera=
ble
in a climate like this? Everyone is vulnerable. Accidents happen. There's
safety only in acquiescence. As I write, I am filled with foreboding. In
this country, I have truly known what it means for a writer to feel loved
(and, to some degree, hated too). Last year I was one of the items being
paraded in the media's end-of-the-year National Pride Parade. Among the
others, much to my mortification, were a bomb-maker and an international
beauty queen. Each time a beaming person stopped me on the street and sai=
d
"You have made India proud" (referring to the prize I won, not the book I
wrote), I felt a little uneasy. It frightened me then and it terrifies me
now, because I know how easily that swell, that tide of emotion, can turn
against me. Perhaps the time for that has come. I'm going to step out fro=
m
under the fairy lights and say what's on my mind.

It's this:

If protesting against having a nuclear bomb implanted in my brain is
anti-Hindu and anti-national, then I secede. I hereby declare myself an
independent, mobile republic. I am a citizen of the earth. I own no
territory. I have no flag. I'm female, but have nothing against eunuchs. =
My
policies are simple. I'm willing to sign any nuclear non-proliferation
treaty or nuclear test ban treaty that's going. Immigrants are welcome. Y=
ou
can help me design our flag.

My world has died. And I write to mourn its passing.=20

India's nuclear tests, the manner in which they were conducted, the eupho=
ria
with which they have been greeted (by us) is indefensible. To me, it
signifies dreadful things. The end of imagination.

On the 15th of August last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of
India's independence. Next May we can mark our first anniversary in nucle=
ar
bondage.

Why did they do it? Political expediency is the obvious, cynical answer,
except that it only raises another, more basic question: Why should it ha=
ve
been politically expedient? The three Official Reasons given are: China,
Pakistan and Exposing Western Hypocrisy.

Taken at face value, and examined individually, they're somewhat baffling.
I'm not for a moment suggesting that these are not real issues. Merely th=
at
they aren't new. The only new thing on the old horizon is the Indian
government. In his appallingly cavalier letter to the US president our pr=
ime
minister says India's decision to go ahead with the nuclear tests was due=
 to
a "deteriorating security environment". He goes on to mention the war wit=
h
China in 1962 and the "three aggressions we have suffered in the last 50
years [from Pakistan]. And for the last 10 years we have been the victim =
of
unremitting terrorism and militancy sponsored by it . . . especially in
Jammu and Kashmir."

The war with China is 35 years old. Unless there's some vital state secre=
t
that we don't know about, it certainly seemed as though matters had impro=
ved
slightly between us. The most recent war with Pakistan was fought 27 year=
s
ago. Admittedly Kashmir continues to be a deeply troubled region and no
doubt Pakistan is gleefully fanning the flames. But surely there must be
flames to fan in the first place?

As for the third Official Reason: Exposing Western Hypocrisy - how much m=
ore
exposed can they be? Which decent human being on earth harbours any
illusions about it? These are people whose histories are spongy with the
blood of others. Colonialism, apartheid, slavery, ethnic cleansing, germ
warfare, chemical weapons, they virtually invented it all. They have
plundered nations, snuffed out civilisations, exterminated entire
populations. They stand on the world's stage stark naked but entirely
unembarrassed, because they know that they have more money, more food and
bigger bombs than anybody else. They know they can wipe us out in the cou=
rse
of an ordinary working day. Personally, I'd say it is arrogance more than
hypocrisy.

We have less money, less food and smaller bombs. However, we have, or had=
,
all kinds of other wealth. Delightful, unquantifiable. What we've done wi=
th
it is the opposite of what we think we've done. We've pawned it all. We'v=
e
traded it in. For what? In order to enter into a contract with the very
people we claim to despise.

All in all, I think it is fair to say that we're the hypocrites. We're th=
e
ones who've abandoned what was arguably a moral position - ie. We have th=
e
technology, we can make bombs if we want to, but we won't. We don't belie=
ve
in them.

We're the ones who have now set up this craven clamouring to be admitted
into the club of superpowers. For India to demand the status of a superpo=
wer
is as ridiculous as demanding to play in the World Cup finals simply beca=
use
we have a ball. Never mind that we haven't qualified, or that we don't pl=
ay
much soccer and haven't got a team.

We are a nation of nearly a billion people. In development terms we rank =
No
138 out of the 175 countries listed in the UNDP's Human Development Index
(even Ghana and Sri Lanka rank above us). More than 400 million of our
people are illiterate and live in absolute poverty, more than 600 million
lack even basic sanitation and more than 200 million have no safe drinkin=
g
water.

The nuclear bomb and the demolition of the Barbi Masjid in Ayodhya are bo=
th
part of the same political process. They are hideous byproducts for a
nation's search for herself. Of India's efforts to forge a national
identity. The poorer the nation, the larger the numbers of illiterate peo=
ple
and the more morally bankrupt her leaders, the cruder and more dangerous =
the
notion of what that identity is or should be.

The jeering, hooting young men who battered down the Babri Masjid are the
same ones whose pictures appeared in the papers in the days that followed
the nuclear tests. They were on the streets, celebrating India's nuclear
bomb and simultaneously "condemning Western Culture" by emptying crates o=
f
Coke and Pepsi into public drains. I'm a little baffled by their logic: C=
oke
is Western Culture, but the nuclear bomb is an old Indian tradition?

Yes, I've heard - the bomb is in the Vedas [ancient Hindu scriptures]. It
might be, but if you look hard enough you'll find Coke in the Vedas too.
That's the great thing about all religious texts. You can find anything y=
ou
want in them - as long as you know what you're looking for.

But returning to the subject of the non-vedic 1990s: we storm the heart o=
f
whiteness, we embrace the most diabolical creation of western science and
call it our own. But we protest against their music, their food, their
clothes, their cinema and their literature. That's not hypocrisy. That's =
humour.

It's funny enough to make a skull smile.

We're back on the old ship. The SS Authenticity & Indianness.

If there is going to be a pro-authenticity/anti-national drive, perhaps t=
he
government ought to get its history straight and its facts right. If they=
're
going to do it, they may as well do it properly.

First of all, the original inhabitants of this land were not Hindu. Ancie=
nt
though it is, there were human beings on earth before there was Hinduism.
India's tribal people have a greater claim to being indigenous to this la=
nd
than anybody else, and how are they treated by the state and its minions?
Oppressed, cheated, robbed of their lands, shunted around like surplus
goods. Perhaps a good place to start would be to restore to them the dign=
ity
that was once theirs. Perhaps the government could make a public undertak=
ing
that more dams of this kind will not be built, that more people will not =
be
displaced.

But of course that would be inconceivable, wouldn't it? Why? Because it's
impractical. Because tribal people don't really matter. Their histories,
their customs, their deities are dispensable. They must learn to sacrific=
e
these things for the greater good of the Nation (that has snatched from t=
hem
everything they ever had).

Okay, so that's out.

For the rest, I could compile a practical list of things to ban and
buildings to break. It'll need some research, but off the top of my head
here are a few suggestions.

They could begin by banning a number of ingredients from our cuisine:
chillies (Mexico), tomatoes (Peru), potatoes (Bolivia), coffee (Morocco),
tea, white sugar, cinnamon (China) . . . they could then move into recipe=
s.
Tea with milk and sugar, for instance (Britain).

Smoking will be out of the question. Tobacco came from North America.
Cricket, English and Democracy should be forbidden. Either kabaddi or
kho-kho could replace cricket. I don't want to start a riot, so I hesitat=
e
to suggest a replacement for English. (Italian? It has found its way to u=
s
via a kinder route: marriage, not imperialism.)

All hospitals in which western medicine is practised or prescribed should=
 be
shut down. All national newspapers discontinued. The railways dismantled.
Airports closed. And what about our newest toy - the mobile phone? Can we
live without it, or shall I suggest that they make an exception there? Th=
ey
could put it down in the column marked "Universal"? (Only essential
commodities will be included here. No music, art or literature.)

Needless to say, sending your children to university in the US, and rushi=
ng
there yourself to have your prostate operated upon will be a cognisable o=
ffence.

It will be a long, long list. It would take years of work. I could not us=
e a
computer because that wouldn't be very authentic of me, would it?

I don't mean to be facetious, merely to point out that this is surely the
short cut to hell. There's no such thing as an Authentic India or a Real
Indian. There is no Divine Committee that has the right to sanction one
single, authorised version of what India is or should be.

Railing against the past will not heal us. History has happened. It's ove=
r
and done with. All we can do is to change its course by encouraging what =
we
love instead of destroying what we don't. There is beauty yet in this
brutal, damaged world of ours. Hidden, fierce, immense. Beauty that is
uniquely ours and beauty that we have received with grace from others,
enhanced, re-invented and made our own. We have to seek it out, nurture i=
t,
love it. Making bombs will only destroy us. It doesn't matter whether we =
use
them or not. They will destroy us either way.

India's nuclear bomb is the final act of betrayal by a ruling class that =
has
failed its people.

However many garlands we heap on our scientists, however many medals we p=
in
to their chests, the truth is that it's far easier to make a bomb than to
educate four hundred million people.

According to opinion polls, we're expected to believe that there's a
national consensus on the issue. It's official now. Everybody loves the
bomb. (Therefore the bomb is good.)

Is it possible for a man who cannot write his own name to understand even
the basic, elementary facts about the nature of nuclear weapons? Has anyb=
ody
told him that nuclear war has nothing at all to do with his received noti=
ons
of war? Nothing to do with honour, nothing to do with pride. Has anybody
bothered to explain to him about thermal blasts, radioactive fallout and =
the
nuclear winter? Are there even words in his language to describe the
concepts of enriched uranium, fissile material and critical mass? Or has =
his
language itself become obsolete? Is he trapped in a time capsule, watchin=
g
the world pass him by, unable to understand or communicate with it becaus=
e
his language never took into account the horrors that the human race woul=
d
dream up? Does he not matter at all, this man?

I'm not talking about one man, of course, I'm talking about millions and
millions of people who live in this country. This is their land too, you
know. They have the right to make an informed decision about its fate and=
,
as far as I can tell, nobody has informed them about anything. The traged=
y
is that nobody could, even if they wanted to. Truly, literally, there's n=
o
language to do it in. This is the real horror of India. The orbits of the
powerful and the powerless spinning further and further apart from each
other, never intersecting, sharing nothing. Not a language. Not even a co=
untry.

Who the hell conducted those opinion polls? Who the hell is the prime
minister to decide whose finger will be on the nuclear button that could
turn everything we love - our earth, our skies, our mountains, our plains=
,
our rivers, our cities and villages - to ash in an instant? Who the hell =
is
he to reassure us that there will be no accidents? How does he know? Why
should we trust him? What has he ever done to make us trust him? What hav=
e
any of them ever done to make us trust them?

The nuclear bomb is the most anti-democratic, anti-national, anti-human,
outright evil thing that man has ever made. If you are religious, then
remember that this bomb is Man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simp=
ly:
We have the power to destroy everything that You have created.

If you're not religious, then look at it this way. This world of ours is
four thousand, six hundred million years old.

It could end in an afternoon.

  This article was published in India, in Frontline and Outlook, last Mon=
day
=A9 Copyright Guardian Media Group plc.1998 =20


*******************************************************************
HOME:                                 WORK:
Sanho Tree                            Institute for Policy Studies
1801 16th St., NW, #505               733 15th St., NW, #1020
Washington, DC  20009-3363            Washington, DC 20005-2112
202/234-6854 (voice)                  202/234-9382 ext. 266 (voice)
202/234-7952 (fax)                    202/387-7915 (fax)
[e-mail]                     www.ips-dc.org
*******************************************************************


--------------8ABA921E28FC31099200ED46--




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Tina Bell <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) WILPF (NY Metro) public meeting on nuclear reactors and cancer
Date: 04 Aug 1998 11:46:36 -0400 (EDT)

WILPF (New York Metro) Public Meeting

NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE KILLING US....
New research on NY having the highest rates of cancers in the U.S.

Speaker:                SATURDAY, AUGUST 8th
JOSEPH MANGANO                12 Noon
Autor, Low Level Radiation &        UN Church Center
Immune System Damage: An Atomic        777 UN Plaza
Legacy                    (44th St & 1st Ave)

Bring a friend * Socialize * Bring a sandwich * Coffee and cake provided

COME & COMMEMORATE HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI DAYS


Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (NY Metro)
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 [phone].


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Norm Cohen <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) WILPF (NY Metro) public meeting on nuclear reactors and cancer
Date: 04 Aug 1998 12:45:49 -0400

Tina, could you send us information on your speaker & how to contact him. We're
working to close down the Salem nukes here in south jersey & his topic would be
interesting to alot of people.

Thanks

Norm Cohen
Exec. Dir
Coalition for peace and justice
po box 2344 cape may nj 08204
609-886-7988

Tina Bell wrote:

> WILPF (New York Metro) Public Meeting
>
> NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE KILLING US....
> New research on NY having the highest rates of cancers in the U.S.
>
> Speaker:                                SATURDAY, AUGUST 8th
> JOSEPH MANGANO                          12 Noon
> Autor, Low Level Radiation &            UN Church Center
> Immune System Damage: An Atomic         777 UN Plaza
> Legacy                                  (44th St & 1st Ave)
>
> Bring a friend * Socialize * Bring a sandwich * Coffee and cake provided
>
> COME & COMMEMORATE HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI DAYS
>
> Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (NY Metro)
> 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 [phone].
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa)
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) [Fwd: A wonderful, moving essay by Arundhati Roy]
Date: 04 Aug 1998 09:57:35 -0700

Dear Peter,

Thank you for sharing this - what a powerful piece of writing.
Coincidentally, a friend just lent me The God of Small Things a couple of
nights ago, but I haven't had time to begin reading it yet.  Would you
happen to have any contact info for Arundhati Roy?

Peace,
Felice



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) WILPF (NY Metro) public meeting on nuclear reactors and cancer
Date: 04 Aug 1998 12:35:07 -0500 (CDT)


    Norm,
          Joe Mangano works with Jay Gould & Sternglass. He lives in
Brooklyn & you can get him via phone at:718-857-9825, via E-mail at:
[e-mail]   Keep up the great work with the Salem Nukes. One
other thing, the CRAC-2 report [which I spent 3 hours posting part of
Sunday night only to have it not go through] on page 16, middle of the
page, [got copy from NIRS] states:"The authors of the reactor safety
study concluded that changing the LD-50/60 from 510 Rads to 340 Rads
would increase the number of eary fatalities by a factor of 3 to 4
depending upo circumstances [NUREG-0340]."
    Also,  CRAC-2 does NOT look at the possibility of the accident
spreading to the spent fuel pool. Nor of an accident spreading to
another reactor [& possibly ITS spent fuel pool]. There have been other
criticisms, relating to underestimate of the potential disaster which
escape me for the time being.

   SALEM, UNITS 1&2, SALEM, N.J.

   "Peak Early Fatalities"  "Peak Early Inj."

     Unit#1   100,000          70,000

     Unit#2   100,000          75,000


   "Peak Cancer Deaths"      "Property Damage"

     Unit#1   40,000          $135.0 BILLION[1982$]

     Unit#2   40,000          $150.0 BILLION [1982$]



         So, simply multiplying the stated "Peak early Fatalities" by a
factor of 3-4 times, you come up with:

      "Peak Early Fatalities"

       Unit#1  300,00- 400,000

       Unit#2  300,000-400,000


          This obviously EXCLUDES other potential scanarios just
mentioned- the accident spreading to spent fuel pools & other
reactors.STAGGERING NUMBERS THAT THE PEOPLE OF NEW JERSEY & NEIGHBORING
STATES ARE POTENTIALLY EXPOSED TO EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY.


      Best/No-Nukes,
                    Bill Smirnow










>
>Tina, could you send us information on your speaker & how to contact
him. We're
>working to close down the Salem nukes here in south jersey & his topic
would be
>interesting to alot of people.
>
>Thanks
>
>Norm Cohen
>Exec. Dir
>Coalition for peace and justice
>po box 2344 cape may nj 08204
>609-886-7988
>
>Tina Bell wrote:
>
>> WILPF (New York Metro) Public Meeting
>>
>> NUCLEAR REACTORS ARE KILLING US....
>> New research on NY having the highest rates of cancers in the U.S.
>>
>> Speaker:                                SATURDAY, AUGUST 8th
>> JOSEPH MANGANO                          12 Noon
>> Autor, Low Level Radiation &            UN Church Center
>> Immune System Damage: An Atomic         777 UN Plaza
>> Legacy                                  (44th St & 1st Ave)
>>
>> Bring a friend * Socialize * Bring a sandwich * Coffee and cake
provided
>>
>> COME & COMMEMORATE HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI DAYS
>>
>> Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (NY Metro)
>> 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 [phone].
>>
>> -
>>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to
"[e-mail]"
>>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages
send
>>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.
>
>
>
>
>-
> To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to
"[e-mail]"
> with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
> For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
> "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.
>


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: NYC - August 12, Local meeting on Day Without the Pentagon
Date: 06 Aug 1998 01:18:15 EDT

Subj:    NYC - August 12, Local meeting on Day Without the Pentagon
 Date:    8/6/98 1:14:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    DavidMcR

 Those in the New York Metroplitan area who want to work on, help organize
for, the DAY WITHOUT THE PENTAGON please note the meeting for next Wednesday,
August 12, 6:30, p.m.  Place: Center for Independent Living for the Disabled,
841 Broadway, second floor.  (This is on Broadway between 13th and 14th St.)

 For full info on the project view the web page:

 www.nonviolence.org/wrl/nopentagon.htm

 Or call Chris or Linda at the War Resisters League office, 212 / 228.0450.

 Hope to see you there,

 David McReynolds

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Kashmiri Activist - NY Times 8/6/98
Date: 06 Aug 1998 09:32:20 -0400

Question:  Is there anyone in Connecticut or New York who c/sh/would go
           talk to M. Farooq Kathwari about helping to lobby Wall Street
           about conversion of nuclear industries and Abolition 2000?

Perhaps he c/would help with HR-827 (see http://prop1.org/prop1/prop1.htm)

Ellen Thomas
[e-mail]

--------------

New York Times August 6, 1998 -
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-profile.html

        PUBLIC LIVES
        Promoter of Peace for a Himalayan Paradise

        By ELISABETH BUMILLER

        KASHMIR, the Himalayan paradise ravaged by nine
        years of guerrilla war, has for centuries inspired
        passionate (and florid) description, but none more so than
        from its most famous son, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first
        Prime Minister.

        "Like some supremely beautiful woman, whose beauty is
        almost impersonal and above human desire, such was
        Kashmir in all its feminine beauty of river and valley and
        lake and graceful trees," Nehru rhapsodized in his
        autobiography. "It was like the face of the beloved that one
        sees in a dream and that fades away on awakening."

        Which brings us, oddly enough, down to earth in Danbury,
        Conn., and the very American executive suite of M. Farooq
        Kathwari, 53, the Kashmir-born chief of Ethan Allen Inc. In
        the last five years, Kathwari has transformed the company
        from a dowdy maker of Colonial furniture into a successful
        purveyor of country French sleigh beds and computer
        hutches.

        That's one story about Kathwari. Here is another one, made
        more urgent by recent developments. Briefly, the plot runs
        like this:

        Onetime cricket-playing princeling of prominent Kashmiri
        business family becomes a student activist in his homeland,
        protests Indian rule, is jailed briefly, then arrives in the
        United States in 1965 at 20, a political refugee. Peddles
        $10,000 of his family's handicrafts (sent to him in wicker
        baskets by his grandfather) as he climbs on Wall Street.
        Now he runs a company of 7,000 employees and an
        estimated $670 million in annual revenue as he tries to
        broker a solution between India and Pakistan over their
        disputed border region and his beloved homeland, suddenly
        a potential flash point for nuclear war.

        "I don't want either India or Pakistan to fight," Kathwari
        said last week. "They should sit down and control their
        egos and their emotions and find a solution that they can
        live with. And also an honorable solution for the people of
        Kashmir."

        Asked if he considers himself Indian or Kashmiri,
        Kathwari, an American citizen, responded swiftly:

        "Oh, a Kashmiri.

        Never an Indian."

        In 1996, Kathwari formed the Kashmir Study Group, an
        influential team of American scholars, politicians, business
        executives and former diplomats that is trying to provide
        "constructive ideas" for the Kashmiri dispute. The dispute
        started a half-century ago, when the British Empire was
        carved up into India and Pakistan and Kashmir was
        literally caught in the middle.

        Kashmir, predominantly Muslim, went to India, and two
        wars resulted. Today India still controls Kashmir, Pakistan
        rejects the possession and most Kashmiris want
        independence. Since 1989, Kashmiri rebels, some backed
        by Pakistan, have sought their own state in an insurgency
        that has cost 40,000 lives. This spring, the nuclear tests of
        India and Pakistan made the world pay a lot more attention.
        Kathwari's study group recommends, for starters, that India
        relax its military presence in Kashmir.

        

        O N the one hand, you look at the problem and it is so
        difficult it is almost futile to get involved," Kathwari, a
        Muslim, said. "But the common people of Kashmir are
        suffering." His parents, his two brothers and his sister still
        live in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, and he knows a
        dozen families that have seen husbands, wives, children or
        other relatives die in the crossfire. "The youth of Kashmir
        has been lost," he said.

        Kathwari is an elegant, self-contained man who speaks in
        the clipped, vaguely British cadences of the Indian upper
        class. He said he was motivated to create the study group
        out of "a sense of responsibility" -- not guilt -- over his
        successful American life. He spoke carefully from a deep
        chair in his office, decorated with Ethan Allen's best, at the
        company's Danbury headquarters. He said a two-month trip
        to India and Pakistan by five study group members last year
        was financed by his Irfan Kathwari Foundation, named for
        his 20-year-old son who died in an accident in 1992.
        Kathwari said it was too painful to talk more about it. He
        has two other grown children, is married to a woman from
        Kashmir and lives in New Rochelle, N.Y.

        He got his start at a company in Queens that he thinks made
        shower stalls. Whatever it was, the captain of the cricket
        team at Kashmir University had never before worked for a
        living, and it was not an auspicious beginning. "My job was
        to help the foreman," he said. "After two weeks he called
        me in, gave me a check, and said, 'Please don't come in on
        Monday.'"

        He did better at New York University's business school,
        then got a job as a financial analyst at Bear Stearns, worked
        at New Court Securities (now Rothschild Inc.), where he
        was introduced to the chairman of Ethan Allen, who
        complained that he couldn't get good Kashmiri
        crewel-work fabric for his furniture.

        Through cousins in Kashmir, Kathwari set up a cottage
        industry in crewel of consistent standards, began supplying
        Ethan Allen, then formed KEA International (for Kathwari
        Ethan Allen), a joint venture in lamps, carpets and so forth.

        In 1980, Ethan Allen bought KEA and Kathwari became an
        Ethan Allen vice president. He was made chairman and
        chief executive in 1988, took the company public in 1993
        and reinvented it as a young and fresh furniture version of
        the Gap.

        Although Kathwari does not express the passions of Nehru
        about Kashmir, he does have pictures in his office of his
        sons on horses at Gulmarg, the beautiful Kashmiri resort.
        Kathwari used to go every summer, before the recent
        troubles.

        Related Article
        Public Lives: A Wedding Gown and Combat Boots
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-public-profile.html


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From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Congressional access website: NY Times
Date: 06 Aug 1998 09:55:26 -0400

http://www.nytimes.com/partners/politics/congress.html

CONGRESS TODAY - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/index.html

      Today's House Schedule - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/sced_house.html
      Today's Senate Schedule - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/sced_sen.html
      This Week's Committee Hearings -
http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/sced_comm.html

                         CONGRESSIONAL GUIDE

Congressional Directory - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/congdir.html
                         Complete guide to the Members of the 105th
                         Congress. Biographies, photos, committee
                         assignments, and staff members.

ZIP Code Matching - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/search.html
                         Don't know your Member? Find out who
                         represents you in Congress using your ZIP
                         Code.

E-Mail Congress - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/elecmail.html
                         The latest Congressional e-mail lists, plus
                         automated forms for posting messages to
                         congressional offices.

Capitol Hill Basics - http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/caphill.html
                         Tips about communicating with Members
                         and general information about Hill staffers,
                         the legislative process and more.

                   Main Politics Page | Congress | Governors
                Home | Sections | Contents | Search | Forums | Help
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From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Sacramento Business Journal 8/3/98 (needs response)
Date: 06 Aug 1998 10:13:05 -0400


This needs expert replies. =20

(Letters: http://www.amcity.com/sacramento/lettertotheeditor.html)

et
-------------------------
         =20

August 3, 1998=
 http://www.amcity.com/sacramento/stories/080398/editorial3.html

        Sacramento Business Journal - "Notebook" :

        It was mostly just a train in the night

        by Bill Buchanan=20

        As a spectacle of terror, the nuclear train that rolled
        through town last week was a big dud. If the ones that
        follow are equally uneventful, then there's not much here to
        worry about.=20

        The train was supposed to be spooky, a rolling and fragile
        cask of radiation, a menace to shut the windows against
        when you first heard it whistle in the distance.=20

        Instead it was a short, swift train of two ordinary engines
        towing a few businesslike flatcars with blue containers,
        followed by a couple of cars to carry guards. The cargo
        was spectacularly risky -- no one denies that -- but was
        extremely well-protected to compensate.=20

        It arrived in Greater Sacramento well before dawn on July
        22. It passed so quickly that the protesters in Davis arrived
        at the station too late to picket it. It soon left the Central
        Valley for the Feather River Canyon and Idaho.=20

        And that's about it, until the next nuclear train visits. Up to
        four more shipments are scheduled to pass through
        California in the next decade.=20

        Like anyone, I'd rather not have enriched uranium roll
        through town. Same for caustic chemicals, flammables,
        weapons and doped-up criminals -- or, at the low end of
        the scale, truckloads of stinking pigs during a heat wave
        and ice-cream trucks endlessly warbling "Turkey in the
        Straw" on maximum.=20

        But living in a prosperous and infinitely intricate economy,
        I accept that some nasty stuff gets lugged around as part of
        the deal. Not every industrial activity can be green.=20

        The useful question isn't whether Sacramento can stick
        some other community with shipments like these. The
        question is how to handle them safely.=20

        Common courtesy says every city should shoulder its share
        without whining. In Sacramento, the task comes with living
        in a transportation corridor.=20

        The used nuclear rods on this train came from South Korea,
        where the United States had sent them years ago as part of
        the Atoms for Peace research program.=20

        A few critics said this batch of rods should have stayed
        where they were -- an odd idea, if the train was genuinely
        supposed to be scary. If the encased rods' merely fleeting
        presence here was intolerable, then it would have been
        dumber to leave them in a country bordered to its north by
        an erratic, overarmed, paranoid and starving police state
        aching to reunite with the south. North Korea's acquisition
        of extra nuclear material would trouble the West more than
        last week's train did.=20

        So to maximize safety and fulfill an old pledge to bring
        them back to the United States, the rods were shipped
        stateside. Then they were scheduled for temporary storage
        at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering
        Laboratory. Once the Department of Energy chose to bring
        them ashore at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, a train
        was the safest option to take them the rest of the way.=20

        Add it up. This train, and any of its caliber that follows,
        was the best way to conclude a process that had to be
        completed.=20

        Railroads are optimal for jobs like these. Most have their
        own rights of way, which improves security. Most don't
        carry passengers, which lowers the risk to people. Keeping
        the shipment off freeways minimizes the chance that a drunk
        or sleepy driver will drift into it at 70 mph.=20

        Most mainline railroads are well-maintained and safe.
        With a few added precautions the Union Pacific Corp.'s
        Feather River route is too, even though for this episode it
        gained an image as a gelatinous slide zone where trains
        spontaneously tumble into canyons at whim.=20

        And finally, railroad employees have years of experience
        handling large, bulky loads. That's what trains are.=20

        The irony is that for all the attention paid to one train, load
        after load of materials that aren't as infamous as nukes, but
        are still dangerous enough to ignite, injure or kill up close
        -- products like industrial chemicals and gasoline --
        routinely pass through local neighborhoods on trains and
        trucks. Few people seem to care about them.=20

        These loads aren't as dangerous as the rods were. (Nor are
        they as generously guarded.) But there's no need to lose
        sleep because, thanks to capable workers, laws and
        common sense, they reach their destinations without harm.=20

        Just like the nuclear train did.=20

        Bill Buchanan is an associate editor of the Business
        Journal.=20

        =A9 1998, Sacramento Business Journal=20

_______________________________________________________________________

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From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: DOE plutonium hearings 8/4 to 8/20/98 (need
Date: 06 Aug 1998 10:33:38 -0400


Anyone at the DOE public hearings near Hanford  August 4th?  Upcoming
hearings need to be attended in Texas, South Carolina, and Oregon.  Copy of
any reports, audiotapes or videotapes appreciated!  Note (aksi at end of
article) list of upcoming hearings:

              "Other DOE hearings on plutonium disposal will be
              Aug. 11 in Amarillo; Aug. 13 in North Augusta, S.C.;
              Aug. 18, Portland; and Aug. 20, Idaho Falls."

et in dc <[e-mail]>

http://www.oregonlive.com/todaysnews/9808/st080409.html

              Public's views on plutonium sought

              The Department of Energy schedules a number
              of hearings on plans to dispose of weapons-grade
              plutonium

              Tuesday, August 4 1998, Oregon Live

              By Linda Ashton of the Associated Press

              YAKIMA -- People in the Northwest
              will get a chance today to comment on a
              plan to dispose of weapons-grade
              plutonium by converting it to commercial
              reactor fuel.

              The U.S. Department of Energy has
              scheduled a hearing -- the first of five
              across the nation -- from 1 to 4 p.m. and
              6 to 9 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel in
              Richland, near the Hanford Nuclear
              Reservation.

              Earlier this summer, then-Energy
              Secretary Federico Pena said the
              government planned to build a
              processing plant at South Carolina's
              Savannah River weapons complex,
              where plutonium would be fabricated
              into a mixed-oxide fuel - also known as
              MOX -- usable in commercial reactors.

              The plutonium would be separated from
              warheads and prepared for disposition
              either at Savannah River or the Pantex
              complex near Amarillo, Texas, Pena
              said.

              The Hanford Nuclear Reservation and
              the Idaho National Engineering and
              Environmental Laboratory at Idaho Falls
              also were considered.

              Hanford, established in 1943 as part of
              the Manhattan Project to build the atomic
              bomb, processed plutonium for nuclear
              weapons. It is now the
              most-contaminated nuclear site in the
              country, and its modern-day mission is
              cleaning up the radioactive and
              hazardous materials there.

              Of the 50 metric tons of plutonium
              designated for disposal, about 30 tons
              could be converted to MOX fuel, said
              Guy Schein, an Energy Department
              spokesman in Richland. The other 20
              tons -- "scrap" plutonium -- is unsuitable
              for the MOX program and would likely
              be encased in glass through a process
              known as vitrification for storage.

              Hanford could still end up being part of
              the plutonium-disposal process, although
              Savannah River and Pantex have been
              designated the preferred sites, Schein
              said.

              A final decision on the MOX fuel project
              is expected next year.

              "Hanford is one of the sites that is
              capable of doing this work," he said.
              "They would not hold a public meeting
              here if it was not a viable option."

              But in announcing DOE's preferred sites,
              Pena said he wanted Hanford to continue
              to focus on its cleanup mission.

              A new energy secretary, Bill
              Richardson, formerly U.S. ambassador
              to the United Nations, was confirmed by
              the Senate on Friday.

              Proponents of bringing the project to
              Hanford offer as one of the biggest
              incentives the Fuels and Materials
              Examination Facility which was
              designed for MOX fuel fabrication. The
              facility was built in the 1980s and has
              never been used.

              "It's like a brand new building sitting
              there waiting for someone to recognize
              its greatness," Schein said.

              The disposal effort is estimated to cost
              $1.8 billion to $2.3 billion over 25
              years, much of it for building and
              operating the plutonium conversion
              plant. The plant is expected to produce
              its first MOX fuel sometime in 2007,
              according to the department's current
              plans.

              Other DOE hearings on plutonium
              disposal will be Aug. 11 in Amarillo;
              Aug. 13 in North Augusta, S.C.; Aug. 18,
              Portland; and Aug. 20, Idaho Falls.

_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) peaceful spam for WRL's 75th
Date: 06 Aug 1998 23:21:50 EDT

This fall, as I suspect most of you know by now, the War Resisters League
celebrates (or regrets) its 75th anniversary.  I suggest "regrets" because we
wish the need for our existence -- war, violence, economic oppression, etc.,
had gone.

The September/October issue of our magazine - Nonviolent Activist - is a
special one, and will reach 10,000 readers.  The deadline for ads is August
14th.  One column inch greeting is $30, one-sixth of a page is $90, full page
is $500.  Groups that have already taken ad space include the American
Committee on Africa, Committees of Correspondence, FAIR, Fellowship of
Reconciliation, Peace Action, the Socialist Party of Iowa, WILPF, etc.

For full info and to take an ad, phone or email: War Resisters League, 212 /
228.0450, [e-mail].

Peace,
David McReynolds
WRL staff

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Our reflection
Date: 07 Aug 1998 10:01:18 EDT

For those who missed it -- someone sent this on to me and it is good news from
India and Pakistan.

David McReynolds

<< -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 A.P. INDEXES: TOP STORIES | NEWS | SPORTS | BUSINESS |
 TECHNOLOGY | ENTERTAINMENT
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Filed at 3:57 a.m. EDT

 By The Associated Press

 CALCUTTA, India (AP) -- A demonstration by 250,000 Indians to mark the
 anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing signaled that initial euphoria over
 India's nuclear tests is waning amid heightened tensions with Pakistan.

 The demonstrators jammed the streets of Calcutta on Thursday -- the
 world's largest gathering to mark the day the first atomic bomb was
 dropped -- to show they don't want a similar tragedy to befall South
 Asia.

 The huge protest contrasted with the initial rush of nationalist pride in
 May, when Indians celebrated exuberantly in the streets after the test
 blasts.

 ``We don't want the bomb! We want peace!'' the crowd chanted
 Thursday in a Calcutta stadium. Celebrities and writers joined a throng of
 factory workers and students in a three-mile march.

 Smaller anti-nuclear demonstrations were held throughout India. ``Bread,
 not bombs!'' shouted demonstrators in New Delhi, where spiraling food
 prices and electricity shortages have dampened enthusiasm over the
 nuclear tests.

 In Hiroshima, Japan, 50,000 people clasped hands in prayer and
 observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. -- the exact time the United
 States dropped the bomb that devastated their city Aug. 6, 1945.

 Peace activists in Oak Ridge, Tenn., marked the anniversary with a
 demonstration outside the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant that supplied
 uranium for the bomb.

 In Pakistan, which followed India into the nuclear age with tests of its
 own, a few hundred people held protests in the three largest cities,
 Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

 The smaller size of the demonstrations reflected most Pakistanis' belief
 that a nuclear bomb is their only defense against their more powerful
 rival.

 The rivalry between Pakistan and India has led to three wars in the past
 50 years, and the subcontinent is considered the world's most likely
 nuclear flashpoint. Two of the three wars have been over the disputed
 Himalayan region of Kashmir.

 Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company


  >>

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: brief report on Livermore Hiroshima action
Date: 07 Aug 1998 21:17:05 EDT

Jackie,

Very good to have this report -- one of several from across the country which
show there are positive, creative, and also sometimes risky and inconvenient
and even illegal ways to mark a moment in human history when we had to learn
how to change.  I hope we can carry this spirit forward October 19th at the
Pentagon.  Resistance and affirmation.  Anger and love.

Peace,
David McReynolds

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) short, but about a long (and good) paper, Iraq, India, Pakistand related
Date: 08 Aug 1998 01:00:38 EDT

Some months ago I had an email from Hugh Gusterson at Stanford University
asking if he could use a quote of mine in a paper he was doing.  I said sure.
Later he sent me an email file of the paper, I couldn't download it, and he
kindly sent me the full text, all 60 triple spaced pages of it.  The original
title was: Iraqnophobia: America's Racist Discourse on Nuclear Proliferation.

I get papers from time to time, I'm a poor student, they tend to gather dust
at home or the office.  My intentions are good (whose aren't?) but my time is
badly organized (whose isn't?).  However when I went to the War Resisters
League National Committee meeting in Oakland a couple of weeks ago I took this
with me and when I ran out of mysteries, I started to read it.

It is, in my view, a first rate paper, raising a number of questions bearing
on the recent nuclear tests of India and Pakistan, and U.S. (and Western)
phobias about Iraq.  It is worth reading just for learning of his debt to Ike
Jeans or (pages 27-29) the horrifying list and documentation of just how very
very close the West has come to major nuclear accidents.

I called David Krieger when I was in Santa Barbara after the Oakland meeting,
and promised David I'd copy the paper for him but that proves a rather large
and time consuming (sixty pages) task - in checking with Hugh, whom I phoned
while in Santa Barbara, he said that if people want to see the paper he can
send it as an attachment - the things I never seem to know how to open  but
I'm sure others do.

Not everyone will agree with the points (if we all agreed there would be no
point in reading it), but I think all of us will find much that is helpful.
It does not apologize for the decisions by India or Pakistan - or the
continued efforts by Iraq - but rather puts them in a very helpful context.

My suggestion is that a number of folks may want to write to Hugh Gusterson
([e-mail]) and ask for it.  It is being published in an
academic publication, but not immediately, and not of wide circulation.  (Let
me add that it is well written, and an easy read, not common when dealing with
heavy stuff.)

Peace,
David McReynolds

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Allison Macfarlane <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) short, but about a long (and good) paper, Iraq, India, Pakistand
Date: 08 Aug 1998 14:23:11 -0700

Dear All,

I just noticed David McReynolds very supportive letter about
"Iraqnophobia,"  a paper written by my partner, Hugh Gusterson.  I just
wanted to point out that Hugh's address quoted in David's letter was
incomplete.  To communicate with Hugh, add a ".edu" onto the end, as in:

 [e-mail].

Thanks,

Allison Macfarlane



Allison Macfarlane
Visiting Scholar
Center for International Security and Arms Control
320 Galvez St
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305-6165

ph: 650/725-6296
Fax: [phone]

NEW email address: [e-mail]



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Hiroshima/Nagasaki Days in NYC (brief)
Date: 09 Aug 1998 00:11:36 EDT

There have been so many strong, courageous, and large actions that I hesitate
to even post this.  But in Manhattan (NYC), Peace Action and War Resisters
League and - I think - Physicians for Social Responsibility have been using
the powerful graphic exhibit the War Resisters League produced in 1995 (large
panels which show the history of the development and use of the nuclear bomb
-- a few complete sets of this are still available and if you want to buy one,
contact the WRL office, [e-mail]).

WRL and Peace Action staff set this up in Washington Square Park in Greenwich
Village starting on August 6th, and have continued with it each day through
tomorrow.  There have been tables set up for literature, organizing material
on the October 19th Day Without the Pentagon, etc.  I wouldn't say public
reaction was overwhelming -- rather too mild, in fact.  But we were there and
will be through tomorrow, as much in witness of a crime as anything else.  To
forget the past is to lose control of the future.

Peace,
David McReynolds

Peace,
David McReynolds

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Anti-Nuke prisoner
Date: 10 Aug 1998 01:40:14 EDT

In a message dated 8/9/98 11:18:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[e-mail] writes:

<< Subj:     Anti-Nuke prisoner
 Date:    8/9/98 11:18:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Greg Pason)
 To:    [e-mail],
[e-mail]
 CC:    [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail] (William A. Pelz)

 Comrades,

 A good friend of Andrea & I and the Socialist Party of NJ, is now being held
 in a Colorado federal prison for an antinuclear "direct action" he did this
 past week.  His name is: Oliver "Sachio" Coe and he is being held in the
 Littleton Federal Detention Center.  Charges are conspiracy and destruction
 of federal property.  His bond hearing is Tuesday, and since he is planning
 on pleading "guilty" since this was a planned act of sabotage, he will most
 likely be spending anywhere from 6 months to 4 years in prison.

 Cde.  Coe (goes by the name of Sachio Hayden) has been a friend of the SPNJ
 for the last eight years, and has been active in helping the SPNJ plan our
 Day W/o the Pentagon activities.  Letters of support would be appreciated.

 Oliver "Sachio" Coe
 #28361-013
 Federal Detention Center
 9595 W. Quincy
 Littleon CO 80123

 I will be glad to keep those interested up-to-date w/ his case, and can get
 you more specific information on the cation.

 In Unity,

 Greg Pason
 SP NJ


 --





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From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: HAP & Titanic analogy
Date: 10 Aug 1998 13:17:04 EDT

Dear Karina (and Janet),

This response is a month late because I've been in and out of town and lots of
mail has piled up.  I think this one, while not the last to answer, is the
very "bottom of my pile" so getting it taken care of will cheer me up!

I do know what worries Janet and I'll try to support her, while not weakening
you.  Our movement needs "all things" (or almost all things).  It needs
lobbying at the United Nations.  (Though God, that can be comfortable,
insulated from the reality of the streets, polite, well dressed, and locked
into endless rounds of discussion about "modalities" and "venues").  And in
the various legislative bodies around the world.  It needs the hard slogging
of education.  It also needs the marches and demonstrations.  And yes, alas,
it needs the arrests.  I say "alas" because being arrested is no bloody fun --
it is boring and sometimes a bit dangerous.

It needs ALL these things.  I remember that Sean MacBride was so furious at
the UN (when he was working inside it)! that he almost (not quite!!!) wished
someone could set off a bomb there to wake people up.

Sometimes it is easy to "have another conference" and think our work is done.
It isn't.  Anymore than the October 19th Day Without the Pentagon will close
the Pentagon.  A number of us will be arrested, a number of us will vigil all
day, but the job will only have begun.

What we need is to "legitimize" the dissent as well as the lobbying.  If the
Hague conference can do something along the line of what the great END
conventions did -- bring together the grass roots workers who, despite all the
political lobbying of the organizers (God, what a wonder it was to sit in on
that meetings!  The internal negotiations and diplomacy between our own "left
and right"), would then go forth and stage the massive protests that shook the
governments, and also take part in the kind of political action that carried
into the governments.

Can the Hague Appeal do this?  I don't know.  My feeling is that the Hague
Appeal is as important as October 19th and I hope to take part in both.

Again - without trying to speak for Janet, but just from the basis of American
experience -- the Vietnam War was ended partly by the horror of the body
count, and partly by the mass demonstrations in the US - not by running
candidates (though to a lesser extent that happened).  The Civil Rights
movement here in the 1950s and 60s did have some links to government, but
primarily was in the street.  And jails.  (Those with long memories may
remember that Jack Kennedy could still, as late as 1960, get away with
ignoring the racial turmoil in the South.)

Those who demonstrate need those who lobby.  Those who lobby need those who
are jailed in protest.  Some of us can do both.  Both are needed.  I hope that
Hague will see strong shows of support from both groups.

Peace,
David McReynolds
New York City



 Subj:     Re: HAP & Titanic analogy
 Date:    7/16/98 11:58:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Karina Wood)
 Sender:    [e-mail]
 To:    [e-mail]

 Dear Abolitionists,

 Janet Bloomfield wrote:
 >I sometimes feel that Hague style events are no more than playing
 >the role of the dance band on the Titanic. Without strong grassroots and
 >political action we are all going down with the ship!
 >I loved the idea of a march from the Hague to NATO, now that really will
 >catch the imagination...hope it was a definite proposal.

 I see where you're coming from on this, Janet, but to my knowledge there
 have not been any "Hague style events" because this is truly a first: when
 before has civil society -- people's organizations of the world, not
 governments or the UN -- organized a global campaign and conference of an
 anticipated 5,000-10,000 activists to formulate and present a comprehensive
 & coherent set of demands to the governments of the world and to ourselves
 on the ongoing and new initiatives, institutions and laws that need to be
 activated so we can delegitimize armed conflict and significantly advance
 all of our campaigns on disarmament, human rights, conflict prevention &
 resolution, humanitarian aid and humanitarian law?

 Would you say that the NGOs who organized en masse at the Bejing Women's
 Conference or the Rio Climate Conference were playing beautiful music while
 the Titanic sank, OR do you think they went there because they saw these
 events would act as lightening rods for global consciousness on the issues
 they raised, attract huge media and public attention to issues that were
 being neglected, and set agendas for practical change that are still being
 implemented and fought for today?

 To me, the Hague Appeal for Peace is all about strengthening the grassroots
 networks of the globe, uniting our voices in one appeal, strategizing
 together to get what we want. It should be seen as a vehicle for and as
 giving a higher public profile to the work we are already doing, not as a
 distraction or as extra work.

 Best regards,
 Karina.
 Karina Wood
 U.S. Outreach Coordinator,
 Hague Appeal for Peace 1999
 43 Nisbet St, 3rd Fl.
 Providence, RI 02906
 Tel: [phone]
 Fax: [phone]
 Email: [e-mail]

 Come to the global conference in The Hague, Netherlands May 11-16 1999!




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: August Actions/New England
Date: 10 Aug 1998 21:55:00 -0500 (CDT)

----
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Sender: [e-mail]
Precedence: bulk


Nuclear Free New England Campaign:
Rally, Action Camp, Workshops

 The Nuclear Free New England Campaign is gaining momentum. Summer
highlights include a mass rally on August 22 in Brattleboro, VT and the
Northeast Action Camp in nearby Dummerston from August 21-27, including
nonviolent direct action at Vermont Yankee August 27. We expect these
to be
among the largest anti-nuclear events of the past decade and we hope to
see
you there!

RALLY
AUGUST 22
Confirmed speakers at the August 22 rally on the Brattleboro Commons
include:

Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield, from Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

David Dellinger, long-time nonviolence activist and Chicago 7 alumnus.

Grace Paley, noted author and activist

Ed Smeloff, former Chairman of the Sacramento Municipal Utility
District,
now at the PACE Energy Project

Harvey Wasserman, author, activist and senior advisor to Greenpeace

Karl Grossman, author of The Wrong Stuff, Power Crazy, and others;
video
producer

The Panther Players, Vermont's comedy/political radio troupe goes
live...

Dr. Ernest Sternglass, well-known radiation scientist

Debby Katz, President, Citizens Awareness Network

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director, NIRS

Maria Mendez, Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund

Dave Rapaport, Executive Director, Vermont PIRG

Michael Colby, Executive Director, Food & Water

Joseph Gainza, VT Nuclear Weapons March

And Waffles The Clown, musicians, and much more!

ACTION CAMP WORKSHOPS

This is a PARTIAL list of workshops scheduled for the Action Camp. This
list
is not complete--there are many more not listed here--and is subject to
change. A more complete list is posted on NIRS' website
(http://www.nirs.org).

Utility Restructuring Strategy Session (Sunday, August 23)
Harvey Wasserman, Ed Smeloff,
Bob Backus, Michael Daley,
Mary Lampert, and more...

Organizing Electric Co-ops
Roy Morrison, Bob Walker, Jennifer Gutshall

Nonviolence for Social Change
David Dellinger, Joanne Sheehan, War Resisters League

Nuclear Power 101
Dave Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists; Paul Gunter, NIRS;
Rosemary
Bassilakis, CAN

Guerilla Theater and Banner Making (August 25)
Bread & Puppet Theatre

Radiological Monitoring & Weather
Sam Miller, Linda Downing

Women and the Wars of Contamination
Debby Katz, Rosemary Bassilakis, Monica Rhodes

Three Mile Island Consequences
Mary Osborne

Leadership Development Skills
Diane Russell, Institute for Conservation Leadership

Media Training
Linda Pentz, Safe Energy Communication Council

Researching Your Local Nuke & Engaging the NRC
Jim Riccio, Critical Mass; Jonathan Block, attorney.

Health Investigations and Public Participation
Diane Quigley and Seth Tuler, Childhood Cancer Research Institute

Nuclear Waste 101-"Low-Level"/102-High Level
Diane D'Arrigo, Mary Olson, NIRS

Beating the Texas-Vermont-Maine Compact
Diane D'Arrigo, Maria Mendez

Canvassing 101
Kim Medeiros, Jennifer Gutshall, Dave Kotker

DIRECT ACTION
On Thursday, August 27, there will be a nonviolent direct action at the
Vermont Yankee reactor. Participants will identify the scene of the
crime
and will serve a citizens' warrant. Nonviolence training is required
for
arrest participants and will be provided at the camp.

For more information on the August 22 Brattleboro rally, contact
Nuclear
Information and Resource Service at 202-328-0002, [e-mail] For
details/preregistration/logistics on the Action Camp and August 27
civil
disobedience at Vermont Yankee, contact Citizens Awareness Network at
413-339-5781, [e-mail]






-
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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: hcaldic <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Re: HAP & Titanic analogy
Date: 11 Aug 1998 12:53:09 +1000

[e-mail] wrote:
>
> Dear Karina (and Janet),
>
> This response is a month late because I've been in and out of town and lots of
> mail has piled up.  I think this one, while not the last to answer, is the
> very "bottom of my pile" so getting it taken care of will cheer me up!
>
> I do know what worries Janet and I'll try to support her, while not weakening
> you.  Our movement needs "all things" (or almost all things).  It needs
> lobbying at the United Nations.  (Though God, that can be comfortable,
> insulated from the reality of the streets, polite, well dressed, and locked
> into endless rounds of discussion about "modalities" and "venues").  And in
> the various legislative bodies around the world.  It needs the hard slogging
> of education.  It also needs the marches and demonstrations.  And yes, alas,
> it needs the arrests.  I say "alas" because being arrested is no bloody fun --
> it is boring and sometimes a bit dangerous.
>
> It needs ALL these things.  I remember that Sean MacBride was so furious at
> the UN (when he was working inside it)! that he almost (not quite!!!) wished
> someone could set off a bomb there to wake people up.
>
> Sometimes it is easy to "have another conference" and think our work is done.
> It isn't.  Anymore than the October 19th Day Without the Pentagon will close
> the Pentagon.  A number of us will be arrested, a number of us will vigil all
> day, but the job will only have begun.
>
> What we need is to "legitimize" the dissent as well as the lobbying.  If the
> Hague conference can do something along the line of what the great END
> conventions did -- bring together the grass roots workers who, despite all the
> political lobbying of the organizers (God, what a wonder it was to sit in on
> that meetings!  The internal negotiations and diplomacy between our own "left
> and right"), would then go forth and stage the massive protests that shook the
> governments, and also take part in the kind of political action that carried
> into the governments.
>
> Can the Hague Appeal do this?  I don't know.  My feeling is that the Hague
> Appeal is as important as October 19th and I hope to take part in both.
>
> Again - without trying to speak for Janet, but just from the basis of American
> experience -- the Vietnam War was ended partly by the horror of the body
> count, and partly by the mass demonstrations in the US - not by running
> candidates (though to a lesser extent that happened).  The Civil Rights
> movement here in the 1950s and 60s did have some links to government, but
> primarily was in the street.  And jails.  (Those with long memories may
> remember that Jack Kennedy could still, as late as 1960, get away with
> ignoring the racial turmoil in the South.)
>
> Those who demonstrate need those who lobby.  Those who lobby need those who
> are jailed in protest.  Some of us can do both.  Both are needed.  I hope that
> Hague will see strong shows of support from both groups.
>
> Peace,
> David McReynolds
> New York City
>
>  Subj:   Re: HAP & Titanic analogy
>  Date:  7/16/98 11:58:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>  From:  [e-mail] (Karina Wood)
>  Sender:        [e-mail]
>  To:    [e-mail]
>
>  Dear Abolitionists,
>
>  Janet Bloomfield wrote:
>  >I sometimes feel that Hague style events are no more than playing
>  >the role of the dance band on the Titanic. Without strong grassroots and
>  >political action we are all going down with the ship!
>  >I loved the idea of a march from the Hague to NATO, now that really will
>  >catch the imagination...hope it was a definite proposal.
>
>  I see where you're coming from on this, Janet, but to my knowledge there
>  have not been any "Hague style events" because this is truly a first: when
>  before has civil society -- people's organizations of the world, not
>  governments or the UN -- organized a global campaign and conference of an
>  anticipated 5,000-10,000 activists to formulate and present a comprehensive
>  & coherent set of demands to the governments of the world and to ourselves
>  on the ongoing and new initiatives, institutions and laws that need to be
>  activated so we can delegitimize armed conflict and significantly advance
>  all of our campaigns on disarmament, human rights, conflict prevention &
>  resolution, humanitarian aid and humanitarian law?
>
>  Would you say that the NGOs who organized en masse at the Bejing Women's
>  Conference or the Rio Climate Conference were playing beautiful music while
>  the Titanic sank, OR do you think they went there because they saw these
>  events would act as lightening rods for global consciousness on the issues
>  they raised, attract huge media and public attention to issues that were
>  being neglected, and set agendas for practical change that are still being
>  implemented and fought for today?
>
>  To me, the Hague Appeal for Peace is all about strengthening the grassroots
>  networks of the globe, uniting our voices in one appeal, strategizing
>  together to get what we want. It should be seen as a vehicle for and as
>  giving a higher public profile to the work we are already doing, not as a
>  distraction or as extra work.
>
>  Best regards,
>  Karina.
>  Karina Wood
>  U.S. Outreach Coordinator,
>  Hague Appeal for Peace 1999
>  43 Nisbet St, 3rd Fl.
>  Providence, RI 02906
>  Tel: [phone]
>  Fax: [phone]
>  Email: [e-mail]
>
>  Come to the global conference in The Hague, Netherlands May 11-16 1999!
>
>
>
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

    I agree Dave, well put, Helen Caldicott



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) More info on Anti-Nuke activists jailed in Colorado
Date: 12 Aug 1998 00:44:12 EDT

Friends,

I am forwarding this post from Greg who sent it to the Socialist Party's net.
Sachio is NOT a member of the SP, but an anarchist.  However he and Greg both
live in New Jersey and work together and Greg has done what all good radicals
must do -- rally to the aid of a friend.

Fortunately I have what I think is an update on his address.

Letters can reach him if addressed to:

Oliver Sachio Coe
Unit A, #28361-013
Federal Detention Center
9595 W. Quincy
Littleton, Colorado 80123

Peace,
David McReynolds

Subj:     Anti-Nuke activists UTD
 Date:    8/11/98 11:57:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Greg Pason)
 To:    [e-mail]
 CC:    [e-mail]

 Comrades,

 A more "official" statement on Sachio

 Greg

 >>From Melissa Jameson, Root and Branch Collective member (NJ WRL):
 Shortly after 6 am on Hiroshima Day 1998, Sachio Ko-Yin, WRL Executive
 Committee member, from Ridgewood, NJ; and Dan Sicken of Brattleboro, VT.
 entered a Minuteman III silo (a deadly force area) in Colorado and sheared 4
 bolts off the center rail track.  They hammered on the already eroded
 concrete that holds the rails, causing it to crumble; they hammered on top
 of the hatch, painted a mural on the lid and stenciled a broken rifle on it;
 and hung a banner that says "Minuteman III Plowshares."  The banner, in the
 picture they are distributing, also has a picture of a broken rifle on it.
 After 45 minutes, they were arrested by the Air Force, M-16's in hand, and
 brought to the Greeley County Jail.  They were questioned extensively by the
 FBI and then transported by the FBI to the Denver City Jail, where they were
 held until their arraignment on Friday, when they were transported to the
 Federal Detention Center.  They are now in the same cell.  Sachio sounds
 fine and is in good spirits--I have spoken with him 3 times so far.  Their
 bond hearing is Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 1:30 pm at Federal Magistrate's Court in
 downtown Denver, CO (19th and Stout Streets).
 The statement Sachio and Dan released about their action says in conclusion,
 "As ringing hammers and blood-anointed art forms come into contact with this
 nuclear threat, we strive for 'A day without the Pentagon.'  On this day,
 the business of war will be history and nuclear territory will be a
 nightmare of the past."
 NJ support is coming from the Root and Branch Collective, WRL local and
 Sachio's home base.  Contact info: Melissa Jameson, 10 E. Ridgewood Ave/,
 #19. Ridgewood, NJ 07450.  email: [e-mail]
 Colorado support is being coordinated by Bill Sulzman and others.
 Contributions and requests for information can be sent to: Plowshares c/o
 Bill Sulzman, P.O. Box 915, Colorado Springs, CO 80901/ PH 719-389-0644.

 DEEDS THROUGH WORDS AND WORDS THROUGH DEEDS--LONG LIVE NONVIOLENCE!


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) nuclear power and the bomb
Date: 12 Aug 1998 17:08:45 -0400

Dear Friends,
Can anyone refer me to a good simple fact sheet or essay describing the
links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons from the beginning of the
nuclear era?  I remember reading somewhere that the Atoms for Peace program
was  deliberately started to compliment the weapons program, and for other
awful purposes.  Thanks for your help.  Regards,
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) ACTION ALERT
Date: 12 Aug 1998 17:43:12 -0400

Dear Friends,
The Congress has taken its August recess.  We need to make home visits to
our Congresspeople during the recess and ask them to sign on as sponsors of
two resolutions:


H.Con.Res.307 to eliminate Stockpile Stewardship funding for new nuclear
weapons research and development ** ASK THAT THEY CALL JEFF DUNCAN IN ED
MARKEY'S OFFICE 202-225-2836;

H.R.479 calling on Clinton to negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear
weapons **ASK THAT THEY CALL MARK DOOLEY IN LYNN WOOLSEY'S OFFICE
202-225-5161.

To date, the following Congresspeople have signed on:

H.Con.Res. 307: Lee, Tierney, Woolsey, Furse, Maloney, Nadler, Schumer,
Lowey, Filner

HR 479: Filner, Stark, Towns, McGovern, Furse, Slaughter, Kennedy(Mass.),
Hinchley, Olver, Faleomavakua, Norton, Lofren, Sanders, Owens, Frank(Mass.),
Hooley, Geo. Miller, Lowey, Nadler, Hilliard, Lee

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE AS FAR AND AS WIDE AS POSSIBLE!!

PLEASE POST YOUR RESULTS, THE GOOD AND THE BAD, TO THE ABOLITION-USA LIST.
LET US KNOW WHAT MEETINGS HAVE BEEN ARRANGED OR WHAT PHONE CALLS AND
LETTERS HAVE BEEN GENERATED.
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) ACTION ALERT
Date: 12 Aug 1998 20:39:29 -0400

Please also don't forget HR-827, the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic
Conversion Act" introduced three times now by Eleanor Holmes Norton.  (I
don't understand why it's not on your list, Alice.)

Ellen Thomas
Proposition One Committee
PO Box 27217, Washington DC 20038
202-462-0757 - http://prop1.org - [e-mail]

At 05:43 PM 8/12/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear Friends,
>The Congress has taken its August recess.  We need to make home visits to
>our Congresspeople during the recess and ask them to sign on as sponsors of
>two resolutions:
>
>
>H.Con.Res.307 to eliminate Stockpile Stewardship funding for new nuclear
>weapons research and development ** ASK THAT THEY CALL JEFF DUNCAN IN ED
>MARKEY'S OFFICE 202-225-2836;
>
>H.R.479 calling on Clinton to negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear
>weapons **ASK THAT THEY CALL MARK DOOLEY IN LYNN WOOLSEY'S OFFICE
>202-225-5161.
>
>To date, the following Congresspeople have signed on:
>
>H.Con.Res. 307: Lee, Tierney, Woolsey, Furse, Maloney, Nadler, Schumer,
>Lowey, Filner
>
>HR 479: Filner, Stark, Towns, McGovern, Furse, Slaughter, Kennedy(Mass.),
>Hinchley, Olver, Faleomavakua, Norton, Lofren, Sanders, Owens, Frank(Mass.),
>Hooley, Geo. Miller, Lowey, Nadler, Hilliard, Lee
>
>PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE AS FAR AND AS WIDE AS POSSIBLE!!
>
>PLEASE POST YOUR RESULTS, THE GOOD AND THE BAD, TO THE ABOLITION-USA LIST.
>LET US KNOW WHAT MEETINGS HAVE BEEN ARRANGED OR WHAT PHONE CALLS AND
>LETTERS HAVE BEEN GENERATED.
>Alice Slater
>Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
>15 East 26 St.
>New York, NY  10010
>212-726-9161(tel)
>212-726-9160(fax)
>Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
>15 East 26 St.
>New York, NY  10010
>212-726-9161(tel)
>212-726-9160(fax)
>
>-
> To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
> with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
> For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
> "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.
>
>
_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Sue Broidy <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Action Alert Congressional Resolutions
Date: 12 Aug 1998 17:50:09 -0700 (PDT)


>
>Dear Friends,
>The Congress has taken its August recess.  We need to make home visits to
our Congresspeople during the recess and ask them to sign on as sponsors of
two resolutions:
>
>H.R.479 calling on Clinton to negotiate a treaty to eliminate nuclear
weapons **ASK THAT THEY CALL MARK DOOLEY IN LYNNE WOOLSEY'S OFFICE
202-225-5161;
>
>H.Con.Res.307 to eliminate Stockpile Stewardship funding for new nuclear
weapons research and development ** ASK THAT THEY CALL JEFF DUNCAN IN ED
MARKEY'S OFFICE 202-225-2836
>
>To date, the following Congresspeople have signed on:
>
>HR 479: Filner, Stark, Towns, McGovern, Furse, Slaughter, Kennedy,
Hinchley, Olver, Faleomavakua, Norton, Lofren, Sanders, Owens, Franks,
Hooley, Geo. Miller, Lowey, Nadler, Hilliard, Lee
>
>H.Con.Res. 307: Lee, Tierney, Woolsey, Furse, Maloney, Nadler, Schumer,
Lowey, Filner
>
>PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE AS FAR AND AS WIDE AS POSSIBLE!!
>
>POST YOUR RESULTS, THE GOOD AND THE BAD, TO THE USA ABOLITION CAUCUS.  LET
US KNOW WHAT MEETINGS HAVE BEEN ARRANGED OR WHAT PHONE CALLS AND LETTERS
HAVE BEEN GENERATED.
>
>To see the full text of the resolutions, check below:
http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/

Sincerely,

Susan Broidy, Coordinator

*************************************************************
Abolition 2000- A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
c/o Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
1187 Coast Village Road, Box 123
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]   URL: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Nuclear Energy Propaganda starting tonight (8/13/98) on cable
Date: 13 Aug 1998 09:06:19 -0400

Nuclear Energy Propaganda starting tonight (8/13/98) on cable TV:

http://nt.excite.com/news/pr/980810/fl-information-tv

Progress in The World's Greatest Power Source Featured on TECHNO 2100

BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ --
...
The Cutting Edge Technology Report, TECHNO 2100, will take an in-depth
look at the phenomenon of nuclear technology in a special two-part television
series. Experts from around the world have joined together to provide
insightful
and fascinating commentary on the many benefits that nuclear energy has to
offer, benefits that go far beyond nuclear energy as a power source.

TECHNO 2100, Our Nuclear Future...Today is scheduled to begin airing on
Thursday August 13, 1998 at 7:OO a.m. Eastern and Pacific time, 6.00 a.m.
Central during the paid programming block on The Discovery Channel. The
program will then be seen in syndication in select markets around the country.
For more information on air dates and times, or to obtain a videotape copy of
the program, please contact 1-800-INFO-ITV (800-463-6488) or visit
www.itvisus.com.  [Actually, try http://www.itvisus.com/itv_productions.htm]

...Not more than 50 years ago,
nuclear energy was an exotic concept...futuristic, experimental, and the
subject
of more than one science fiction movie. But times have changed, and today, the
power of nuclear energy is no stranger to the global community. For
example, in
the United States alone, Americans get more electricity from nuclear energy
than
any other source except coal. In some countries other than the US, such as
France, nearly 80% of all electricity is nuclear generated, and countries
like Great
Britain, Japan and France are reusing and recycling uranium and plutonium for
commercial energy purposes. And facts such as these are only the beginning.


This program is produced by the multi-award winning Information Television
Network and is made possible by COGEMA, Inc., Japan Atomic Energy
Relations Organization, BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels, plc) and the Nuclear
Energy Institute.

Visit the Information Television Network website at http://www.itvisus.com to
watch other TECHNO 2100 episodes and see the future...today.

Source: Information Television Network
Contact: Karl Perdue, Information Television Network, 561-997-5433


_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Titan Explosion and Cassini (Kaku quotes) ABC 8/13/98
Date: 13 Aug 1998 09:40:45 -0400

http://www.abcnews.com/sections/science/DailyNews/rocket980812.html

An unmanned Titan IV-A rocket carrying an
estimated $1 billion government payload
explodes seconds after liftoff from Cape
Canaveral this morning. (Duffin McGee/Reuters)=20

$1 Billion Satellite Destroyed=20
Rocket Explodes at Launch

By Michael J. Martinez
ABCNEWS.com
Aug. 12 =97 U.S. Air Force officials remain baffled after an unmanned Titan
IV-A rocket exploded 40 seconds into flight this morning. No one was
injured, but the $1 billion spy satellite payload was lost.=20

The Titan IV is the same type of rocket that lifted the NASA=92s Cassini
space probe into orbit last October, despite protests that an explosion
like today=92s could have scattered the 72 pounds of plutonium aboard Cassin=
i
over a wide area.=20

On board today=92s rocket was a secret payload for the National
Reconnaissance Office, a once-secret arm of the U.S. intelligence community
charged with deploying spy satellites. The lost payload, which contained no
radioactive substances, reportedly cost $1 billion. The Air Force did not
release any other details about the payload, and a spokeswoman at the
reconnaissance agency declined comment.=20

=93My initial thought is, =91we=92re hurt.=92 This is a sad day for the Unit=
ed
States Air Force,=94 Brigadier General Randy Starbuck told a news conference
after the blast.=20

Destruction Over the Atlantic=20

Starbuck said there had been no indication of any problem until the rocket
pitched over just before the blast. Videotape of the brief flight showed
the Titan=92s nose apparently pitching downward just before the rocket=92s
self-destruct program
                      activated.
=20
=93Oh, no,=94 the launch commentator said as the rocket exploded. =93It appe=
ars
we=92ve had a malfunction.=94=20

According to the spokeswoman, mission control sent its own destruction
commands to the rocket two seconds after the first signs of trouble in
order to be sure the rocket was completely destroyed and would not harm
anyone.

The rocket, launched at 7:30 a.m. EDT, blew up at 20,000 feet over the
Atlantic Ocean. To protect populated areas, Titans aren=92t launched unless
winds are blowing away from the coast, ensuring that any debris or fumes
from an explosion won=92t reach land. The Air Force says all of the debris
fell into the ocean. Starbuck warned anyone who came across debris from the
rocket or its ultra-secret cargo to keep away.=20

The sound of the explosion, heard as two separate booms, set off car alarms
as far away as Cocoa Beach, 10 miles away. Journalists and observers near
the launch site were immediately hustled onto buses and evacuated after the
explosion.=20

Plagued by Problems=20

The mission was originally scheduled for late July, but was postponed so
workers could repair torn insulation on the rocket=92s second stage. Today=
=92s
launch was also delayed more than an hour due to fueling problems.=20

The Air Force says it has no idea what happened, but that a panel of
investigators will be appointed to look into the incident.=20

The 204-foot-long, 1,900-pound Titan IV-A is powered by two solid-fuel
rocket boosters and first- and second-stage liquid-fuel engines. Depending
on its configuration, the Titan IV rocket costs anywhere from $177 million
to $230 million.=20

The rocket, according to NASA figures, has a 5 percent failure rate, but
remains the unmanned rocket of choice for deep-space probes and heavy
payloads due to its power.=20

Previous Questions=20

The Titan IV failure rate came into play last year, when concerns arose
during preparations for the launch of the Cassini space probe, designed to
study Saturn and its moons. Florida residents and environmentalists feared
the plutonium in Cassini=92s batteries could contaminate residential areas i=
f
the spacecraft exploded during launch.=20

According to NASA, plutonium is the only viable way to power deep-space
probes, which operate too far away from the sun to tap solar energy.=20

Despite the protests, Cassini was successfully launched on Oct. 15, 1997.
It recently gained speed from the gravity of Venus, and is now heading
around the Sun. It is expected to pass within 500 miles of Earth some time
next year, and will reach Saturn in 2004.=20

On Aug. 2, 1993, another Titan IV mission, launched from Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California and carrying another secret government payload,
failed due to a problem with one of its solid rocket motors. A problem with
similar solid rocket motors aboard the shuttle Challenger led to the
shuttle=92s destruction in 1986.
=20
The reconnaissance agency=92s last successful launch, also using a Titan IV,
was on May 8. The rocket that exploded today was the last of that
particular model scheduled for launch. The Air Force introduced last year
an improved version of therocket.=20
                                                             =20
  What If This Had Been Cassini?=20

  The Cassini mission to Saturn was one
  of the most unpopular missions in the
  history of NASA, not because of the
  destination, but because of the
  plutonium power cells on board the
  probe.=20
       Members of the scientific
  community, Florida residents and
  environmentalists all criticized the
  probe=92s use of deadly nuclear material,
  and were concerned about the Titan
  IV=92s poor safety record.=20
       =93The failure rate of any rocket is
  anywhere between 1-in-70 and
  1-in-100,=94 says Michio Kaku, a
  theoretical physicist at New York=92s
  City University. =93With the Titan IV, it=92s
  about 1-in-20. Needless to say, the
  bugs have not been ironed out.=94=20
                         =20
  Kaku and other Cassini opponents
  thought NASA was taking too big
  a risk with the Titan IV, which
  launched Cassini successfully on
  Oct. 15, 1997. The damage
  estimates from a potential
  Titan-Cassini explosion ranged
  from 120 deaths over 50 years to
  hundreds of thousands of deaths
  relatively quickly, all due to
  radiation exposure.=20

  Kaku says he hopes today=92s
  explosion makes NASA and the
  Air Force confront the risks of
  using the Titan IV.=20

  =93There are some bureaucrats
  who want to play Russian roulette
  with these rockets,=94 Kaku says.
  =93Bureaucrats can=92t repeal the laws
  of physics.=94=20

_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Dan & Sachio out of prison
Date: 13 Aug 1998 08:58:02 -0700

Dear Friends,

This word from Colorado:

To everyone's suprise Dan and Sachio were released on a PR bond and will
be staying in Colorado Springs until trial, but will be able to visit
their respective homes with approval of the pretrial caseworker... A
grand jury is being empaneled to investigate and the charges will likely
be increased at a September 3rd hearing.

Peace,
Felice

P.S.  Anyone who wants a copy of the upcoming Nuclear Resister, due out at
the end of the month, which will include the story of this and LOTS of
other Hiroshima & Nagasaki actions and more, send a snail mail address and
we'll get one to you.  There are currently more than 30 people in prison
for School of the Americas and anti-nuke actions...



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Sally Light" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Dan & Sachio out of prison
Date: 13 Aug 1998 11:22:27 +0100

Please send Nuclear Resister to:  Sally Light, 825 Kains Ave., #H, Albany,
CA 94607.  Thanks, Sally Light (I work for Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore,
CA, as its Nuclear Weapons & Waste Program Analyst).

----------
> From: Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: (abolition-usa) Dan & Sachio out of prison
> Date: Thursday, August 13, 1998 4:58 PM
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> This word from Colorado:
>
> To everyone's suprise Dan and Sachio were released on a PR bond and will
> be staying in Colorado Springs until trial, but will be able to visit
> their respective homes with approval of the pretrial caseworker... A
> grand jury is being empaneled to investigate and the charges will likely
> be increased at a September 3rd hearing.
>
> Peace,
> Felice
>
> P.S.  Anyone who wants a copy of the upcoming Nuclear Resister, due out
at
> the end of the month, which will include the story of this and LOTS of
> other Hiroshima & Nagasaki actions and more, send a snail mail address
and
> we'll get one to you.  There are currently more than 30 people in prison
> for School of the Americas and anti-nuke actions...
>
>
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to
"[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Tracy Moavero <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) vermont info
Date: 13 Aug 1998 14:06:51 -0700 (PDT)

Alice,

Don't know if you've seen this

Tracy


Nuclear Free New England Campaign:
Rally, Action Camp, Workshops

 The Nuclear Free New England Campaign is gaining momentum. Summer
highlights include a mass rally on August 22 in Brattleboro, VT and the
Northeast Action Camp in nearby Dummerston from August 21-27, including
nonviolent direct action at Vermont Yankee August 27. We expect these to be
among the largest anti-nuclear events of the past decade and we hope to see
you there!

RALLY
AUGUST 22
Confirmed speakers at the August 22 rally on the Brattleboro Commons include:

Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield, from Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

David Dellinger, long-time nonviolence activist and Chicago 7 alumnus.

Grace Paley, noted author and activist

Ed Smeloff, former Chairman of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District,
now at the PACE Energy Project

Harvey Wasserman, author, activist and senior advisor to Greenpeace

Karl Grossman, author of The Wrong Stuff, Power Crazy, and others; video
producer

The Panther Players, Vermont's comedy/political radio troupe goes live...

Dr. Ernest Sternglass, well-known radiation scientist

Debby Katz, President, Citizens Awareness Network

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director, NIRS

Maria Mendez, Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund

Dave Rapaport, Executive Director, Vermont PIRG

Michael Colby, Executive Director, Food & Water

Joseph Gainza, VT Nuclear Weapons March

And Waffles The Clown, musicians, and much more!

ACTION CAMP WORKSHOPS

This is a PARTIAL list of workshops scheduled for the Action Camp. This list
is not complete--there are many more not listed here--and is subject to
change. A more complete list is posted on NIRS' website (www.nirs.org).

Utility Restructuring Strategy Session (Sunday, August 23)
Harvey Wasserman, Ed Smeloff,
Bob Backus, Michael Daley,
Mary Lampert, and more...

Organizing Electric Co-ops
Roy Morrison, Bob Walker, Jennifer Gutshall

Nonviolence for Social Change
David Dellinger, Joanne Sheehan, War Resisters League

Nuclear Power 101
Dave Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists; Paul Gunter, NIRS; Rosemary
Bassilakis, CAN

Guerilla Theater and Banner Making (August 25)
Bread & Puppet Theatre

Radiological Monitoring & Weather
Sam Miller, Linda Downing

Women and the Wars of Contamination
Debby Katz, Rosemary Bassilakis, Monica Rhodes

Three Mile Island Consequences
Mary Osborne

Leadership Development Skills
Diane Russell, Institute for Conservation Leadership

Media Training
Linda Pentz, Safe Energy Communication Council

Researching Your Local Nuke & Engaging the NRC
Jim Riccio, Critical Mass; Jonathan Block, attorney.

Health Investigations and Public Participation
Diane Quigley and Seth Tuler, Childhood Cancer Research Institute

Nuclear Waste 101-"Low-Level"/102-High Level
Diane D'Arrigo, Mary Olson, NIRS

Beating the Texas-Vermont-Maine Compact
Diane D'Arrigo, Maria Mendez

Canvassing 101
Kim Medeiros, Jennifer Gutshall, Dave Kotker

DIRECT ACTION
On Thursday, August 27, there will be a nonviolent direct action at the
Vermont Yankee reactor. Participants will identify the scene of the crime
and will serve a citizens' warrant. Nonviolence training is required for
arrest participants and will be provided at the camp.

For more information on the August 22 Brattleboro rally, contact Nuclear
Information and Resource Service at 202-328-0002, [e-mail] For
details/preregistration/logistics on the Action Camp and August 27 civil
disobedience at Vermont Yankee, contact Citizens Awareness Network at
413-339-5781, [e-mail]




--------------8237667F74BD959B99A26FA4--

******************************************
Tracy Moavero
Peace Action International Office
866 UN Plaza, Room 4053
New York, NY 10017-1822
USA
Tel.:  [phone]
Fax:   [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Web:   www.webcom.com/peaceact

Peace Action is a member of the International Peace Bureau & Abolition 2000:
A Global Network for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Norm Cohen <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) tmi 20th anniversary
Date: 14 Aug 1998 14:25:00 -0400



Norm Cohen wrote:

> from: Norm Cohen, Coalition for Peace & Justice/UNPLUG Salem Campaign
> to: abolition usa activists who work on nuke power & nuke weapon
> production:
>
>   I understand that march 28th, 1999  is the 20th anniversary of the tmi
> debacle & I was wondering what is being planned or considered for that
> date. What I would like to see is one big event at 3 mile that date &
> nationally coordinated actions on the 26/27th at nuke power & nuke weapon
> production sites nationwide. Are we looking to do a repeat of the no-nukes
> concert, even if smaller? has anyone talked to jackson browne, bonnie
> raitt, bruce, etc, the performers from that concert? Is there
> consideration of setting up an ad hoc national coordinating committee for
> this anniversary?
>    I'm not in all the loops, so if these ideas are already being worked
> on, great. If not - who is planning what, what are your reactions to these
> ideas, what should the no-nuke community be doing?
>    And good luck to CAN and their encampment & protest event coming up
> next week.
>
> Peace
> Norm Cohen
> Executive Director
> Coalition for Peace & Justice
> PO Box 2344, Cape May NJ 08204
> 609-886-7988
> South Jersey Coordinator, UNPLUG Salem Campaign.




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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fwd: (abolition-usa) Dan & Sachio out of prison
Date: 14 Aug 1998 15:12:00 EDT

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--part0_903121920_boundary
Content-ID: <0_903121920@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

I think Amanda is talking about a post from the Nuclear Resister, not one that
I sent.  My hunch is that this list is small enough that (I hope and pray) one
of you can get back to her.

Peace,
David

--part0_903121920_boundary
Content-ID: <0_903121920@inet_out.mail.aol.com.2>
Content-type: message/rfc822
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Content-disposition: inline

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit

I'd like to get a copy of that newsletter you were talking about....
Here's my address (try not to stalk me, though I know it'll be difficult)
Amanda Highfield
87 Friendly rd.
Hicksville, NY
11801

--part0_903121920_boundary--

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Titan Explosion photos website
Date: 14 Aug 1998 20:28:48 -0400

http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/uselv/titan/a20.htm

Titan IV-A rocket explosion photos
_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nevada Desert Experience <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re:  (abolition-usa) vermont info
Date: 14 Aug 1998 20:22:08 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Tracy,                    August 14, 1998
Looks like a great event.  You must be expecting hundreds.  Please share
with abolition usa how it goes next week.  We had about 70 folks at the
Nevada Test Site for our annual August Desert Witness, Aug. 6-9.
    Sincerely,        David Buer, ofm
                Nevada Desert Experience

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Ross Wilcock" <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Titan Explosion and Cassini (Kaku quotes) ABC 8/13/98
Date: 15 Aug 1998 11:24:13 -0400


Do we have any assurance that the satellite in question here was not powered
by Pu238 power packs?
Did what fell into the sea include any such material?

Ross Wilcock


-----Original Message-----
[mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Peace through
Reason
Sent:    Thursday, August 13, 1998 3:41 PM
ABC 8/13/98

http://www.abcnews.com/sections/science/DailyNews/rocket980812.html
An unmanned Titan IV-A rocket carrying an estimated $1 billion government
payload explodes seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral this morning.
(Duffin McGee/Reuters)

$1 Billion Satellite Destroyed
Rocket Explodes at Launch

By Michael J. Martinez
ABCNEWS.com
Aug. 12 - U.S. Air Force officials remain baffled after an unmanned Titan
IV-A rocket exploded 40 seconds into flight this morning. No one was
injured, but the $1 billion spy satellite payload was lost.
The Titan IV is the same type of rocket that lifted the NASA's Cassini space
probe into orbit last October, despite protests that an explosion like
today's could have scattered the 72 pounds of plutonium aboard Cassini over
a wide area.
On board today's rocket was a secret payload for the National Reconnaissance
Office, a once-secret arm of the U.S. intelligence community charged with
deploying spy satellites. The lost payload, which contained no radioactive
substances, reportedly cost $1 billion. The Air Force did not release any
other details about the payload, and a spokeswoman at the reconnaissance
agency declined comment.
"My initial thought is, 'we're hurt.' This is a sad day for the United
States Air Force," Brigadier General Randy Starbuck told a news conference
after the blast.
Destruction Over the Atlantic
Starbuck said there had been no indication of any problem until the rocket
pitched over just before the blast. Videotape of the brief flight showed the
Titan's nose apparently pitching downward just before the rocket's
self-destruct program activated.
"Oh, no," the launch commentator said as the rocket exploded. "It appears
we've had a malfunction."
According to the spokeswoman, mission control sent its own destruction
commands to the rocket two seconds after the first signs of trouble in order
to be sure the rocket was completely destroyed and would not harm anyone.
The rocket, launched at 7:30 a.m. EDT, blew up at 20,000 feet over the
Atlantic Ocean. To protect populated areas, Titans aren't launched unless
winds are blowing away from the coast, ensuring that any debris or fumes
from an explosion won't reach land. The Air Force says all of the debris
fell into the ocean. Starbuck warned anyone who came across debris from the
rocket or its ultra-secret cargo to keep away.
The sound of the explosion, heard as two separate booms, set off car alarms
as far away as Cocoa Beach, 10 miles away. Journalists and observers near
the launch site were immediately hustled onto buses and evacuated after the
explosion.
Plagued by Problems
The mission was originally scheduled for late July, but was postponed so
workers could repair torn insulation on the rocket's second stage. Today's
launch was also delayed more than an hour due to fueling problems.
The Air Force says it has no idea what happened, but that a panel of
investigators will be appointed to look into the incident.
The 204-foot-long, 1,900-pound Titan IV-A is powered by two solid-fuel
rocket boosters and first- and second-stage liquid-fuel engines. Depending
on its configuration, the Titan IV rocket costs anywhere from $177 million
to $230 million.
The rocket, according to NASA figures, has a 5 percent failure rate, but
remains the unmanned rocket of choice for deep-space probes and heavy
payloads due to its power.
Previous Questions
The Titan IV failure rate came into play last year, when concerns arose
during preparations for the launch of the Cassini space probe, designed to
study Saturn and its moons. Florida residents and environmentalists feared
the plutonium in Cassini's batteries could contaminate residential areas if
the spacecraft exploded during launch.
According to NASA, plutonium is the only viable way to power deep-space
probes, which operate too far away from the sun to tap solar energy.
Despite the protests, Cassini was successfully launched on Oct. 15, 1997.
It recently gained speed from the gravity of Venus, and is now heading
around the Sun. It is expected to pass within 500 miles of Earth some time
next year, and will reach Saturn in 2004.
On Aug. 2, 1993, another Titan IV mission, launched from Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California and carrying another secret government payload,
failed due to a problem with one of its solid rocket motors. A problem with
similar solid rocket motors aboard the shuttle Challenger led to the
shuttle's destruction in 1986.
The reconnaissance agency's last successful launch, also using a Titan IV,
was on May 8. The rocket that exploded today was the last of that particular
model scheduled for launch. The Air Force introduced last year an improved
version of therocket.
What If This Had Been Cassini?
The Cassini mission to Saturn was one of the most unpopular missions in the
history of NASA, not because of the destination, but because of the
plutonium power cells on board the probe.
Members of the scientific community, Florida residents and environmentalists
all criticized the probe's use of deadly nuclear material, and were
concerned about the Titan IV's poor safety record.
"The failure rate of any rocket is anywhere between 1-in-70 and 1-in-100,"
says Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist at New York's City University.
"With the Titan IV, it's about 1-in-20. Needless to say, the bugs have not
been ironed out."

Kaku and other Cassini opponents thought NASA was taking too big a risk with
the Titan IV, which
launched Cassini successfully on Oct. 15, 1997. The damage estimates from a
potential Titan-Cassini explosion ranged from 120 deaths over 50 years to
hundreds of thousands of deaths relatively quickly, all due to radiation
exposure.

Kaku says he hopes today's explosion makes NASA and the Air Force confront
the risks of using the Titan IV.

"There are some bureaucrats who want to play Russian roulette with these
rockets," Kaku says.
"Bureaucrats can't repeal the laws of physics."


* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Pu238 on Titan?
Date: 16 Aug 1998 06:51:09 -0400

A very good question.  I thought it was a little fishy the way they whisked
all their military personnel out of there asap, and now they've cordoned
off a huge section of the sea that's off-limits while they look for debris.
 Not that that would do much good....

Ellen Thomas

At 11:24 AM 8/15/98 -0400, Ross Wilcock wrote:
>
>Do we have any assurance that the satellite in question here was not powered
>by Pu238 power packs?
>Did what fell into the sea include any such material?
>

_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Loring Wirbel <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re:  (abolition-usa) Re: Pu238 on Titan?
Date: 16 Aug 1998 20:59:46 -0700 (PDT)

Ellen and List:
    While I would not TOTALLY discount the possibility of Pu power
sources for Advanced Vortex, the bulk of studies done by Federation of
American Scientists, Jeff Richelson, and others have shown pretty
conclusively that no U.S. spy satellites presently use a radioactive
power source or an RTG.
   There were two reasons the area off Cocoa Beach/Canaveral was
cordoned off:  short-term, there was a real toxic threat from human
handling of rocket-fuel-tainted parts.  Longer term (and perhaps more
important in the military's eyes), the way that the 320-foot antenna of
Advanced Vortex wraps around the Inertial Upper Stage in an
automatically-unfurlable helix umbrella configuration, is considered
one of the most highly classified pieces of information in the U.S.
government.  The Pentagon doesn't want to risk citizens seeing even
tiny pieces of what Vortex looks like.

Loring Wirbel
PPJPC/CPIS
Colorado Springs

[e-mail]


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peter Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) [Fwd: FYI: Sub-Continent Requires 'Nuclear Education']
Date: 17 Aug 1998 12:20:42 -0400

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DISARMAMENT-SOUTH ASIA: Sub-Continent Requires 'Nuclear Education'

By IPS Correspondents  LONDON, Aug 7, 1998

(IPS) - In an editorial in this week's British Medical Journal, Professor
Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta from the Aga Khan University in Pakistan laments the
growth of the nuclear arms race in the sub-continent.

''The enormous costs of nuclear weapons must be weighed against the abysmal
state of human development and health in South Asia,'' he says. Professor
Bhutta, who is head of paediatrics and child health at the University, notes
that the region is home to over half of all the malnourished children in the
world.

In view of the high infant mortality and a lack of basic facilities for
health and education, he finds the diversion of scarce economic resources to
weapons of mass destruction incongruous, he writes in the current issue of
the prestigious medical weekly, published Friday.

Professor Bhutta suggests that the only way to ensure that a nuclear
conflict between India and Pakistan never occurs is to educate the
population in its true horrors and the human costs that such a programme
could entail.

He condemns the ''widespread euphoria and jingoism witnessed in the streets
of Delhi and Islamabad'' in the days following the nuclear tests last May.
However, he says that in recent weeks this has given way to ''introspection
and the beginnings of a real debate on the implications of a nuclear arms
race in the subcontinent''.

While ''the genie of nuclear capability in both countries has been well and
truly let out,'' he says, this must not be allowed to lead to a nuclear arms
build up.

Bhutta gives ''several compelling reasons why such a programme in the
subcontinent may not serve as a deterrent to war but greatly enhance its
risks and costs''.

Drawing any analogy with the US and USSR is ''misguided'', he insists, as
neither India nor Pakistan have the technology or resources to put in place
safeguards and early warning systems.

''Even if such fail safe systems were available, contiguous borders and
missile delivery times of under 10 minutes, coupled with fragile democracies
and volatile political systems make the effectiveness of such systems highly
questionable.''

He notes that the Cold War was ''fraught with numerous instances of near
miss accidents'' and despite assurances there has bee ''significant
radiation leakage'' from accidents involving nuclear weapons and production
facilities in the West.

He says it is ''debatable if the fragile economies of India and Pakistan
could sustain better weapons control and monitoring systems''.

But more important than this is the cost of a weapons programme for
countries with poor and inadequate health systems. Of every 1,0000 children
born in these countries, at least 80 will not survive for one year while up
to 33 per cent of all newborn infants are of low birth weight.

Under these circumstances the diversion of scarce resources into weapons
production is unacceptable. ''Since the nuclear explosions, India's defence
budget has already been increased by 10 per cent and Pakistan has imposed a
10 per cent tax surcharge to meet increasing defence needs,'' he points out.

''These allocations have led to an unfortunate but predictable reduction in
the existing meagre allocations to health and education.''

Bhutta notes that few of the people who celebrated in the streets following
the explosions really understand the horrors of nuclear war. He recalls that
according to calculations made over 35 years ago, the impact of a 20 megaton
ground burst nuclear device on Boston in the US would kill 2.1 million
people immediately, while a further 500,000 would be at risk of dying from
their injuries.

''With large urban population living in highly inflammable and flimsy shanty
towns, the casualty rates in comparable cities of India and Pakistan would
inevitably be much higher.''

It is estimated that an exchange of even much smaller 20 kiloton bombs would
cause the immediate death of 1.2 million people. ''Neither side would be
immune to the effects of even a limited nuclear exchange: a truly mutually
assured destruction.''

The only way to ensure that this does not happen, says Bhutta, ''is by
educating the populace and opinion leaders to the true horrors of nuclear
conflict and the human costs of embarking on an expensive and futile
programme of weapons building''.

He points out that ''in a subcontinent teetering on the brink of a nuclear
abyss'' rapprochement between India and Pakistan is possible only through
''pragmatic confidence building measures'' and ''by publicising the views of
the many proponents of peace on both sides of the border''.

He urges politicians in both countries ''asserting their right to rub
shoulders with global nuclear superpowers'' to understand that ''true
nuclear capability only comes with the necessary nuclear responsibility a
responsibility to their impoverished, destitute and sick populations''.

Nor are the superpowers blameless. They can hold no high moral ground ''with
their continued nuclear weapons programmes and pitifully slow disarmament
process''. He says that ''surely some of the blame for recent events in
south Asia lies at their doorstep.''

In view of their failure to set a proper example, he insists, ''it is
imperative that international sanctions against India and Pakistan do not
add to the misery of millions of children and poor people in the
subcontinent, who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of such measures.''
(END/IPS/JMP/RJ/98)


*******************************************************************
HOME:                                 WORK:
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1801 16th St., NW, #505               733 15th St., NW, #1020
Washington, DC  20009-3363            Washington, DC 20005-2112
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Tracy Moavero <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re:  (abolition-usa) vermont info
Date: 17 Aug 1998 13:51:36 -0700 (PDT)

David,

At 08:22 PM 8/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Tracy,                    August 14, 1998
>Looks like a great event.  You must be expecting hundreds.  Please share
>with abolition usa how it goes next week.  We had about 70 folks at the
>Nevada Test Site for our annual August Desert Witness, Aug. 6-9.
>    Sincerely,        David Buer, ofm
>                Nevada Desert Experience
>

Congrats on the successful Desert Witness. Just to clarify, I actually am
not working on the Vermont action- AFSC is. I was just passing along info. I
hope AFSC sends some updates.

All the best,

Tracy Moavero
******************************************
Tracy Moavero
Peace Action International Office
866 UN Plaza, Room 4053
New York, NY 10017-1822
USA
Tel.:  [phone]
Fax:   [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Web:   www.webcom.com/peaceact

Peace Action is a member of the International Peace Bureau & Abolition 2000:
A Global Network for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Utah Needs Help!
Date: 18 Aug 1998 10:24:51 -0400

Okay, folks, what grass-roots action can help these people?  Isn't there
something about States' rights in the Constitution?

et in dc
[e-mail]

------

http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/front/docs/themis14.htm

State, Envirocare fail in bid to keep N-waste out of Utah

08/15/1998

By Joey Haws
Deseret News staff writer

Attempts by the state and Envirocare of Utah to keep low-level radioactive
waste from going to a processing plant in Blanding have failed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel
turned down the Aug. 7 request for a temporary stay of the NRC's decision
to allow the White Mesa Mill to receive, process and dispose of uranium
bearing material from a nuclear weapons plant in Tonawanda, N.Y.

Judge Peter B. Bloch ruled that the state's request came too late to be
considered, citing the request for a stay should have been filed no later
than July 23 according to federal code. The NRC granted the license
amendment on June 23, allowing International Uranium Corp., owner of the
White  Mesa Mill, to haul the tailings across the county to Utah.

While the state's request was being considered by the NRC, shipments of
25,000 cubic yards of waste continued to go to the mill.

"The judge basically threw the case out on a technicality," said Bill
Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control.

Representatives for the state and IUC held a prehearing teleconference on
the same day the licensing board received the state's request, but after
negotiations lasted through Tuesday, the parties reported "that further
negotiations would not be fruitful."


Bloch's ruling only keeps the state from preventing the uranium shipment
from happening. The state and the mill will go before the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board Panel for a hearing on the case, assuming the panel decides
that the state has the right to challenge the NRC decision.

Sinclair said the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for the
cleanup of the Tonawanda site, will give the state detailed information on
the contents of the waste that's on its way.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Sinclair said. "The Army
Corps of Engineers is committed to supplying us the information we needed
to know how hazardous the waste is." Sinclair expects the "information
blitz" to come in by Monday.

The state still has to make additional filings next week before a hearing
date can be scheduled, but both the mill and the state expect it soon.

IUC President Earl Hoellen said he was gratified by the ruling.

Hoellen also confirmed Friday that possibly 150 tons of the uranium
material have already been received at the White Mesa Mill. Hoellen said
shipments are being received almost daily at the mill.
        Reprocessing is not expected to begin until sometime in September.



_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Action Alert/Renewable energy
Date: 18 Aug 1998 15:33:15 -0400

Dear Friends,
Our Abolition 2000 statement recognizes that nuclear weapons and nuclear
power are "inextricably linked".  With India and Pakistan having gone
nuclear, and North Korea threatening to do so, it is critical that
alternative energy solutions be promulgated.  Yet forces in the US Congress
threaten to decimate even the modest efforts being made to develop safe
alternatives.  Please take a moment to respond to the Action Alert below.
Peace, Alice Slater
>X-UID: 000e5859
>Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 10:30:09 -0400
>Subject:
>To: [e-mail]
>From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
>
>Hi Folks!  Please take action now and distribute far and wide.
>
>URGENT ACTION ALERT
>
>August xx, 1998
>
>Issue:  Opponents in Congress have been trying to cut renewables
>funding.  Now they are pressuring the Department of Energy (DOE)
>to dismantle much of the institutional base of support for renewable
>energy by placing restrictions on contracts and grants. As a result of
>DOE responses to this pressure, the Solar Energy Industries
>Association laid off most of its staff on August 14, and a number of
>other organizations may soon be forced to do the same.
>
>Action:  Write a letter to new Department of Energy Secretary Bill
>Richardson urging him to stand strong and maintain DOE support
>for renewable energy organizations.
>
>Background: Over the past several years, renewable energy and
>energy efficiency supporters have been able to rally both Democrats
>and Republicans in Congress to support these programs. Now, a
>small number of powerful opponents in Congress are seeking to
>eliminate or weaken the very organizations that are involved in
>research and public education on renewables.
>
>The House and Senate have each passed their own version of the
>Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which includes funding for
>renewable energy research, development, and commercialization
>programs. Each version of the bill is accompanied by a bill report.
>The bill report is not legally binding, but it provides guidance to the
>Department of Energy (DOE) on how lawmakers want the money
>to be spent.
>
>This year, both the House and Senate bill reports include a section
>called "Inappropriate Use of Appropriations" that apparently is
>intended to discourage the Department of Energy from providing
>funding to renewable energy trade associations and organizations.
>(See full language at the bottom of this alert.) The report language
>does not refer specifically to renewables. In fact, it could be
>interpreted to refer to any DOE contractor.
>
>However, our opponents have focussed their attention on
>renewables thus far and have not indicated an intention for this
>language to affect trade associations and organizations associated
>with other energy technologies (such as nuclear, fossil, and fusion).
>The language would further restrict collaborative research,
>development, and commercialization efforts with industry, and
>grants to small research organizations and projects, as well as the
>trade associations. Organizations working on energy efficiency may
>also be affected, since they are in the same program at DOE and are
>also disliked by our opponents.
>
>This restrictive language has already had a chilling effect on DOE's
>actions. A number of trade associations and non-profit
>organizations have not yet received the DOE grants that they were
>awarded for the current fiscal year, even though the restrictive
>language is for fiscal year 1999.
>
>We need to send a loud, clear message to the Department of Energy
>that it must stand firm.  If DOE responds by allowing some
>renewable energy groups to go out of business, our opponents will
>become stronger and bolder, while we will become weaker. We
>have majority support in both chambers of Congress for renewables
>in general. This small but powerful minority must not be permitted
>to destroy our institutional base of support.
>
>Please write a letter to DOE Secretary Bill Richardson, on behalf of
>your organization or company if possible. I suggest that you both
>fax and mail your letter to DOE Secretary Bill Richardson, and
>send a copy to Vice President Al Gore. See sample letter below.
>
>Additional actions for those who wish to do more:
>
>1) Forward this alert to other friends of renewable energy.
>2) Call your contacts at the Department of Energy. If they say,
>"Don't worry, we can work around this language," ask them,
>"Then why hasn't DOE released current year (fiscal year 1998)
>funds to many sustainable energy organizations? It appears to us
>that this language is already having a chilling effect."
>3) If your US Senator or Representatives are sympathetic to
>renewables, send them a copy of your letter and ask them to talk to
>their colleagues on the House or Senate Energy and Water
>Development Appropriations Committee.
>
>Sample letter:
>
>The Honorable Bill Richardson
>Secretary
>US Department of Energy
>1000 Independence Avenue SW
>Washington, DC 20585
>
>Dear Secretary Richardson:
>
>[If you are writing on behalf of a membership organization
>or coalition, say so, and list the number of members you have.]
>
>    I am writing to express my concern about language in the
>Energy and Water Appropriations bills that is apparently intended
>to sharply reduce Department of Energy grants to organizations that
>produce and disseminate research and information about renewable
>energy and energy efficiency. While the language does not mention
>renewable energy specifically, its authors have focussed on
>renewables and efficiency. The chilling affect of this language has
>already caused DOE program managers to withhold funds that had
>been promised to a number of organizations for the current fiscal
>year (1998).
>
>    I urge you to immediately work with the Energy and Water
>Appropriations Committees to eliminate this damaging language,
>before the conference committee completes its reconciliation of the
>House and Senate versions of the bill. I also urge you to support the
>Senate appropriation of $367 million for renewable energy. A clear
>majority of Congress supports renewable energy; a small minority
>must not be allowed to disrupt DOE's programs in this area.
>
>                        Sincerely,
>                        Your name and title
>
>cc: Vice President Al Gore
>
>Contact information:
>
>Bill Richardson, Secretary of Energy
>US Department of Energy
>1000 Independence Avenue SW
>Washington, DC 20585
>Phone: [phone]
>Fax: [phone]
>
>Vice President Albert Gore, Jr.
>Old Executive Office Building
>17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW
>Washington, DC 20501
>Phone: [phone]
>Fax: [phone]
>Email: [e-mail]
>
>The actual language from the reports that accompany the Energy
>and Water Development Appropriations bills:
>
>HOUSE LANGUAGE
>
>INAPPROPRIATE USE OF APPROPRIATIONS
>
>The Committee continues to be very concerned about the
>inappropriate use of contractors in the development of
>budget requests and execution of Department programs.
>The Committee has learned that certain contractors
>have been reimbursed by the Department for the
>following activities:  answering the organization's
>phones, faxes, and e-mails; updating web sites of the
>organizations; getting industry together to develop
>"consensus positions" on department programs;
>conference calls with Department employees once a
>month; publishing association journals and other
>publications; and attending domestic and international
>conferences to represent their industry members. These
>contracts and grants are especially suspect
>considering that they are routinely awarded
>noncompetitively.
>
>While there may be instances where it is necessary for
>the Department to procure the services of a contractor
>for a specific task,  it is inappropriate for the
>Department to routinely fund the operating budget for
>these outside groups. As a rule, the Department should
>procure services from contractors in arms-length
>arrangements. In cases where it is determined that a
>specific service or product is needed and it is in the
>interest of the Department to secure the service or
>product through a grant or contract, the Department
>should procure or award using competitive procedures.
>
>SENATE LANGUAGE
>INAPPROPRIATE USE OF APPROPRIATIONS
>The Committee has learned that funds made available to
>the Department of Energy by previous appropriations
>acts have been used to, among other things:  pay for
>members of industry associations and associated
>entities to attend national and international
>conferences, publish magazines, purchase association
>membership information, conduct surveys of association
>membership, place op-ed style articles in
>publications, write talking points in support of the
>Department's programs, and underwrite industry
>conferences.
>
>The Committee has not included a statutory prohibition on these
>activities because the activities themselves are not at issue; there
>may be legitimate reasons for employees of the Department of
>Energy or its management and operating contractors to undertake
>the activities listed above. However, a distinction needs to be drawn
>between employees of the Department of Energy or its management
>and operating contractors who act on behalf of the Government and
>other contractors whose predominant responsibility is not to the
>Government. The Department and its  management and operating
>contractors should not contract with any other entity for the
>performance of these or similar responsibilities, and, as a general
>rule, appropriated funds should not be used, directly or indirectly, to
>underwrite the expense of industry associations or associated
>entities.
>
>
>Anna Aurilio
>U.S. PIRG
>
>
>
>
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>
>
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

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From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) A-2000 NY Metro Working Group Minutes/US Abolition Campaign
Date: 18 Aug 1998 19:18:19 -0400

Dear Friends,
Enclosed are the minutes of the Abolition 2000 NY Metro Group.  Since they
are of more than general interest, I thought I would post them to our USA
list:  the actions recommended and discussion are not specific to New York.
 Have any of you been having regional or local Abolition 2000 meetings?  In
New York, we were able to get a list of all the Abolition 2000 member
organizations from the International Office to enlarge our group here.  You
can get a list of groups in your area from Sue Broidy, the Coordinator at
our administrative offices. Sue's e-mail is <[e-mail]>.
>
>To: Abolition 2000 NY Metro Working Group
>From: Tracy Moavero
>Re: Minutes, August 11, 1998
>
>Abolition 2000 New York Metro - Minutes of 8.11.98 meeting
>
>Attendance: Tracy Moavero (Peace Action International Office) Tina
Bell(Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-NY Metro); Selma
Brackman, Johanne Winchester,Kevin Sanders(War and Peace Digest); Sonya
Ostrom (Metro NY Peace Action); Alyn Ware, Peter Weiss, Nya Gregor Fleron
(Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy); Howie Katz (Jewish Peace
Fellowship); Mickey Singsen(American Friends Service Committee); Amardeep
Assar(York College/CUNY); Jonathan Schell(the Nation Institute); Alice
Slater (Global Resouce Action Center for the Environment); Anne Zanes(Peace
Links); Michael Raphael,Adam Weissman(Wetlands); Steve Kent(Kent
Communications); Chris Ney(War Resisters League)
>
>Announcements:
>The Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and several other US groups(GRACE,
AFSC, Western States Legal Foundation,Fourth Freedom Forum, Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation) are hiring a full-time abolition organizer to work out of
Washington DC. Alyn Ware at LCNP (212-674-7790, [e-mail]) can provide a
job description and is the contact for applications.  Fax resumes to Alyn
at 212-674-6199 Please get the word out! The response needs to be stronger
to have a good pool of candidates.
>
>Jonathan Schell announced that a 100 mile anti-nuclear march in Vermont
>will take place starting August 15, organized by the American Friends
Service Committee. (It was felt that as many people in the group had not
heard about this march, this signified the need for more cooperation and
coordination nationally.) This effort is part of an initiative to hold New
England town meetings on nuclear abolition.
>
>Congressional Resolutions:
>
>Markey Resolution, H.Con.Res. 307 to cut funding for new nuclear weapons
in the "Stockpile Stewardship" program. Alice Slater said that thanks to
lots of people working in the New York area and around the country the
current sponsors are Lee, Tierney, Woolsey, Furse, Maloney, Nadler,
Schumer, Lowey, Filner.  Although Major Owens told Sonya Ostrom that he
would sign on, his name was still not on the list.
>
>Woolsey Resolution, HR 479 calling on Clinton to negotiate a treaty to
eliminate nuclear weapons. Current sponsors are Filner Stark, Towns,
McGovern, Furse, Slaughter, Kennedy(Mass), Hinchley, Olver, Faleomavakua,
Norton, Lofren, Sanders, Owens, Frank(Mass), Hooley, Miller(CA), Lowey,
Nadler, Hilliard, Lee
>
>Working Group members were encouraged to meet or call their
Representatives to either thank them for co-sponsoring or to get them on
board during the August Congressional recess.
>
>New Agenda Coalition
>The international sign-on letter to support the eight countries calling for
>disarmament negotiations is still open for signatures. For more information
>contact Tracy Moavero at Peace Action International 212-750-5795
,<[e-mail]>.
>
>Members of the Working Group have been meeting with delegates of the New
>Agenda nations - Mexico and South Africa so far. They urged these countries
>to move beyond their declaration and their planned General Assembly
>resolution to push their initiative into strong action. They have also been
>meeting with members of the declared nuclear weapons states, most recently
>Russia.
>
>Selma Brackman suggested that working group members meet with the G-77
leadership. Alyn noted that getting members of those governments behind the
NAC resolution shouldn't be too difficult, but it will take a lot of work
>to get European nations to vote for it, particularly NATO members. The
>Abolition 2000 administrator (Sue Broidy of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation)
>will soon be in Austria to encourage Austrian groups to push the Austrian
>government on this initiative. Jonathan Granoff will also be in Europe to
>do similar work.
>
>Alyn also reported that a representative of Abolition 2000, most likely
>Paul Saoke Of Kenya (who is a member of the international steering
committee) may be attending the triennial Non-Aligned Movement meeting in
South Africa at the end of August.
>
>Tracy mentioned the possibility of getting an article written by someone
>prominent on the New Agenda Coalition to then shop it around to the media.
>Retired Senator Alan Cranston and former Canadian Ambassador Doug Roche
>were suggested. Alice asked Jonathan who said he might consider it but has
a heavy workload. Alyn emphasized the need for careful timing and suggested
>that we talk with the Irish mission to coordinate with their publicity
>around the UNGA resolution launch. Selma and Kevin mentioned a Canadian
>t.v. network which broadcast the World Court hearing on nuclear weapons
use or threat of use (1996).
>
>Abolition 2000 USA Meeting
>Jonathan reported that an ad hoc group of activists from around the country
>were invited by David Cortwright of the Fourth Freedom Forum to explore the
>idea of a nationally-coordinated abolition campaign. This campaign would be
>oriented to pressuring the U.S. government to adopt a policy favoring a
>nuclear weapons abolition convention. It would be a cooperative effort with
>the existing international network and would combine both grassroots and
>"elite"-level work with an eye to media coverage. The above-mentioned
>organizer will work alongside a coordinator already hired by Fourth
>Freedom.
>
>No proposals for the shape or structure of this campaign came out of this
>meeting. Instead, regional meetings would plan input to an Oct. 9 national
>meeting in Chicago. This Abolition 2000 New York Metro meeting was one of
>the regional meetings. The minutes of the abolition meeting and a time line
>of planned and possible events around which to work were distributed by
Alice and are available from GRACE.
>
>Additions were made to the Proposed Time Line of Nucler Abolition Activities:
>
>Sept.14-16: NY, UN Dept. of Public Info. Conference
>
>October 19: Day Without the Pentagon, Wahington, DC
>
>There was general agreement that the Sept/Oct date of the proposed press
conference and public launch of a US Abolition Campaign was too early.
>
>Highlights of a detailed discussion on a national campaign:
>- Important to use different perspectives on abolition: moral,
>intellectual, strategic. Working Group members varied on where the
emphasis needs to be, though most agreed that they need to be combined in
different ways.
>- Need to organize on campuses, although it was recognized that currently
>many students are more responsive to human rights issues such as Chiapas.
>- Potential computer malfunctions in the year 2000 give added urgency to
>abolition by 2000 (Kevin Sanders and Johanne Winchester volunteered to
write a simple fact sheet relating the Y2K problem to nuclear abolition)
>- Having materials ready to hand out at the Department of Public
>Information/NGO Conference at the UN (Sept. 14-16) would be useful as many
>U.S. NGOs will have representatives there.
>- It would be excellent to have Arundati Roy speak at an abolition event.
>She's the author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning bestseller The God of Small
>Things who recently published a widely-praised, deeply-moving article on
>nuclear weapons tests in India.
>- A postcard campaign in addition to abolition petitions would create a
>steady stream of pressure for abolition instead of just a one-time delivery
>of petitions.(Alice passed out samples of a FCNL mailer with four
postcards: to the President, two Senators, and Congressional Representative)
>- The Cooper Union speech by Lee Butler (on the anniversary of an important
>Abraham Lincoln speech on the abolition of slavery) was agreed to be an
>important moment for attention to the US abolition campaign, possibly for a
>launch and definitely for some media work.
>- The Mayor of Hiroshima was seen by some as an important ally in our U.S.
>work, most likely when speaking with U.S. mayors to connect Hiroshima (and
>Nagasaki) to the U.S. Others felt that working with him in a U.S. national
>campaign could be counterproductive, particularly when reaching out to
>youth.
>- Legislation is important, but getting youth involved requires other
>tactics, such as rock bands or other events that don't center on
>traditional politics.
>
>Election Campaigns
>Peter Weiss urged the working group to get House and Senate candidates on
>record on abolition during the primary campaigns. Peace Action is already
doing work on the Senate race in New York State and elsewhere, but not on
the New York House races. It was agreed that members of the group would try
to get Congressional Candidates to state their positions on abolition and
HR 479 and H. ConRes 307. Alyn and Alice will work up a questionnaire for
candidates, Anne Zanes will help. Steve Kent will write up a briefing paper
on abolition, in consultation with Jonathan. These materials will be
available for giving to candidates. Steve also mentioned that we can get
supportive candidates to make speeches on our issue, then help them get
radio time to air the same views more broadly, creating a cooperative
relationship.
>
>Next meeting - Wednesday, September 9 at noon.
>
>Minutes - Tracy Moavero 8.11.98
>******************************************
>
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) ACTION ALERT/NELSON MANDELA
Date: 19 Aug 1998 14:02:05 -0400

Dear Friends,

It is very possible that Nelson Mandela will come to New York for the UN
General Assembly which opens on September 8th.  As we plan our US Abolition
Campaign strategy, our most urgent need is to reach the American public to
let them know what we all know too well about our nations's immoral,
provocative and mindless nuclear policy.  South Africa is a member of the
eight nation New Agenda Coalition which has received zero coverage in the
US media for its clarion call for nuclear disarmament.  Mandela is the only
world leader on the stage today who can command the attention of the US
media and the public.  If he comes to the US, it is critical that he speak
out in favor of nuclear abolition to gain the public's ear.

WE NEED TO GENERATE LETTERS TO NELSON MANDELA URGING HIM TO DO SO!!

Write to:
Nelson Mandela
Private Bag x1000
0001
South Africa

Thank him for South Africa's leadership role in the New Agenda Coalition
and urge him to speak out on the need to begin negotiations now on a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.  Note that if he is planning to be in New
York for the General Assembly it is particularly important that his remarks
be made to the US public, as it will be picked up by the US media which
always reports broadly on his public statements in America. Ask him to call
for immediate implementation of the steps in the Canberra Commission report
such as:

Declare a policy of "no first use"
Take all nuclear forces off alert
Remove all warheads from delivery vehicles
End all nuclear testing - subcritical and computer simulated

Send a copy of your letter to the South African mission in New York at:

Ambassador Khiphsuizi Jele
Permanent Mission of South Africa to the UN
333 East 38th St.
New York, NY  10016

Post your letters to the caucus, so we know it's happening!  Many thanks.

Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
of Nuclear Weapons



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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) (Short) / NYC metro Area / Day Without the Pentagon
Date: 19 Aug 1998 21:21:22 EDT

On Thursday, August 27th, at 6 p.m. there will be a second New York organizing
meeting for Day Without the Pentagon. (The October 19th action endorsed by a
broad range of groups including Committees of Correspondence, War Resisters
League, the Socialist Party, Disabled in Action, etc.) It will be held on the
second floor of 841 Broadway, at the Center for Independent Living for the
Disabled. (841 Broadway is just a few doors south of 14th Street).

For information call 212 / 228.0450 or email: [e-mail]
check out the web site: www.nonviolence.org/wrl/nopentagon.htm


-
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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) For NYC metropolitan area
Date: 19 Aug 1998 21:21:15 EDT

On Thursday, August 27th, at 6 p.m. there will be a second New York organizing
meeting for Day Without the Pentagon.  (The October 19th action endorsed by a
broad range of groups including Committees of Correspondence, the Socialist
Party, War Resisters League, Disabled in Action, etc.)  It will be held on the
second floor of 841 Broadway, at the Center for Independent Living for the
Disabled. (841 Broadway is just a few doors south of 14th Street).

For information call 212 / 228.0450 or email: [e-mail]
check out the web site: www.nonviolence.org/wrl/nopentagon.htm


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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Clinton's bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan: time for resignation
Date: 20 Aug 1998 16:42:09 EDT


 About 2 p.m. this afternoon (Eastern time) I learned that Clinton had ordered
the bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan, allegedly in response to the terrorist
bombings in Africa.

 There is no question in my mind that the bombing was directly related to the
troubles flowing from the Monica Lewinsky case and the negative reaction to
his TV appearance in which he was unable to admit he had lied previously.

 I do not care what Clinton does in his private sexual life as long as those
involved are consenting adults.  Nor do I think that area of his life is a
legitimate target of inquiry.  I am aware the far right has been targeting
Clinton since his election, and zeroed in on his weakness for fellatio.

 What makes this private matter very much a public concern is that Clinton
has, once again, as he did earlier in the last Iraq crisis, tried to divert
attention from his sexual life by ratting swords at a distance.

 There is not the slightest evidence that the bombing today was anything more
than a diversion of attention.  Nor any doubt that he has found it convenient
to leave behind an unhappy family situation to return to the White House.

 Clinton is not the worse man we have had in the White House.  He is not a
demon.  But the liberal community should by this time realize that not only
radicals but even moderate liberals are being damaged by further defense of
Clinton.  (Liberals should realize that the attacks on Clarence Thomas during
his nomination to the Supreme Court were not even about overt acts but only
over allegations of an interest in pornography -- here we have a President who
gets blow jobs in the Oval Office and then demeans that office by lying about
it, and getting his aides and friends to join in that conspiracy of lies.)
Liberals need to redeem their own situation with some modicum of consistency.
Clinton does not deserve support.  He is killing people at a vast distance
from this country solely to divert attention from his own problems.

 The issue is, I repeat, not Clinton's sex life.  Most of the world is stunned
that America is spending this much time on something personal and private.  I
share that sense of dismay, but point out that the issue, at least for me, is
not whether Clinton is having sex in the White House, and not even whether he
is lying about having sex in the White House, but that he is conducting a
foreign policy based on trying to divert attention from those facts.

 It is time for Clinton to resign and let the Vice President take charge.
Politically there is no difference between them -- but Al Gore will not be
under the same pressure to conduct bombing raids in distant parts of the globe
to divert attention from his middle aged sexual activities.

 I hope Americans will contact their members of Congress and make it clear
they cannot support these unilateral US military actions, undertaken without
proof of guilt, and almost certainly killing people who had done no harm to
any American citizens.
 Clinton is not fit to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.  To
the degree he has conducted it he has failed on the issue of the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty, he has failed on the issue of Land Minds, and he has, most
monumentally, failed by pressing for the expansion of NATO.  He has failed to
life the embargoes of Cuba, of Libya, of Iraq.

 At what point will liberals realize Clinton is a lost cause?  The issue is
not his private sexual life, but the bizarre impact it has on his foreign
policy.  The US - and the world -- cannot afford to have Clinton serve out his
remaining two years.

 David McReynolds,
 NYC / August 20 / 1998
 (former Chair of War Resisters International,
 former Co-Chair, Socialist Party USA,
 member of staff, War Resisters League - the above statement is a personal
one, not a reflection of the positions of any of the organizations, given for
identification only)

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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Peter Coombes" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) =?iso-8859-1?Q?CANADIAN_CITIZENS=92_WEAPONS_INSPECTION_TEAM?=
Date: 20 Aug 1998 15:50:47 -0700

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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CANADIAN CITIZENS=92 WEAPONS INSPECTION TEAM
=20
Libby Davies =96 The Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team allows =
people to get involved in a process to make a change. I believe when =
citizens mobilize, you can pressure your government to work.
=20
Report of the Weapons Inspection of
Electric Boat Corporation, Groton Connecticut
August 3, 1998
=20
by Peter Coombes
President of End the Arms Race
Suite 405 =96 825 Granville Street
Vancouver BC Canada V6Z 1K9
604/687-3223
fax [phone]
[e-mail]
www.peacewire.org
=20
Executive Summary
=20
David Morgan =96 The most valuable service that these inspections for =
weapons of mass destruction has accomplished, has been to lawfully visit =
major nuclear weapons facilities and to correctly name, label and =
connect them in the minds of all people with outlawed weapons of mass =
destruction.
=20
    On August 3, 1998 while the United States Congress passed a bill to =
extend sanctions against Iraq for restricting access to sites suspected =
of producing weapons of mass destruction The Canadian Citizens=92 =
Weapons Inspection Team was refused access to a restricted site in =
Groton, Connecticut.
=20
    The Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team found that the Electric Boat =
Corporation in Groton, Connecticut maintained production facilities to =
build and refit the delivery systems needed for nuclear weapons of mass =
destruction. The team thus concluded that the Electric Boat Corporation =
is complicit in perpetuating the illicit threat or use of nuclear =
weapons.
=20
    The Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team, organized by End =
the Arms Race, traveled across the continent from Vancouver and Toronto =
to join members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and community =
activists from New York and Connecticut to conduct its second weapons =
inspection.=20
=20
    Leading the inspection was community activist and Canadian Member of =
Parliament Libby Davies (NDP =96 Vancouver East). Davies was joined by =
three Canadians: Peter Coombes, President of End the Arms Race; David =
Morgan, President of Veterans Against Nuclear Armaments; and Phyllis =
Creighton representative of the Anglican Church of Canada. The team was =
joined by members located in the U.S.: Bill Dyson, Representative =
Connecticut State Legislature; Vince Romano, Clayton Ramey and Charlie =
Brown of Fellowship of Reconciliation; and Alyn Ware, Executive Director =
of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.
=20
    The team found that the material evidence overwhelming proved that =
Electric Boat Corporation had built the trident submarine, a nuclear =
weapons Ohio-class submarine, and the Sea Wolf attack submarine. Even =
more damaging is that the Electric Boat Corporation maintains the =
technology and productions facilities to build and refit these nuclear =
weapon delivery systems. The sources include documents by government, =
analysis by expert military researchers and testimony by local =
activists. An aerial inspection of the Electric Boat Corporation and the =
near by U.S. naval base substantiated the conclusions of the team.
=20
Meeting with Under-Secretary General for Disarmament, UN
=20
Phyllis Creighton =96 The Canadian Citizens' Weapons Inspection Team is =
an inspiration to take our powers, to do everything we can to rid the =
world of the terror of nuclear omnicide.
=20
    In the morning of August 3 the Citizen=92s Weapons Inspection Team =
met with Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary General for Disarmament =
of the United Nations. The team met with Mr.. Dhanapala to inform him =
about citizens=92 inspection, and to find out how together we can =
further the cause of nuclear weapons abolition.
Mr.. Dhanapala was very open to the idea that citizens=92 worldwide =
could take an active role in promoting nuclear weapons disarmament and =
participate in the verification process. He referred to Joseph =
Rotblat=92s appeal that the strongest way to ensure the abolition of =
nuclear weapons was to empower professionals, scientists, workers and =
all citizens with the right to inform an international monitoring body =
of any violations of a nuclear weapons disarmament agreement.
=20
    The meeting between Mr.. Dhanapala and The Citizens=92 Weapons =
Inspection Team is a vital bridge between government level diplomacy and =
direct citizen participation in global affairs. The materials and the =
meeting demonstrated to Mr.. Dhanapala that citizens and =
non-governmental organizations worldwide expect to directly =
participating in nuclear weapons disarmament. When Peter Coombes =
restated the principles of the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection =
Team Mr.. Dhanapala was then able to respond by saying that is why he =
can support its work. The conclusion of the meeting is that the =
Disarmament Affairs department and citizens have common ground in which =
to work together.
=20
    Attending the meeting was Libby Davies. Peter Coombes, David Morgan, =
Phyllis Creighton, Vince Romano, Alyn Ware, and Leif Erickson.
=20
Inspection of Electric Boat Corporation=20
=20
Libby Davies =96 I think they were expecting civil disobedience. There =
were tons of police and their own security forces.
=20
    On July 10, 1998 President of End the Arms Race, Peter Coombes sent =
a letter to the John Welch, President of the Electric Boat Corporation =
asking for unrestricted access. A response was received from Kevin M. =
Cassidy, Director of Human Resources, denying access to the Electric =
Boat facility. He stated that "Electric Boat is a secure defense =
facility; visits by the public are not allowed for security reasons," =
and that "... the issues you raise in your letter relate more to =
national defense policy than to shipbuilding."
In a follow-up telephone conversation Peter Coombes pursued the issue =
with Mr.. Cassidy, attempted to arrange a meeting and confirmed that =
civil disobedience was not the intent. Cassidy reiterated the =
company=92s refusal to allow the inspectors on site and obstinately =
declined an invitation to meet with the Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection =
Team.=20
=20
Mike Bell, Vancouver Echo 12/8/98 =96 EBC had hired security and called =
police in advance of what they obviously perceived as a dangerous =
situation.

    The only danger the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team =
possesses is the ability to reveal the obvious fact that the United =
States has the largest stockpiles and the greatest potential to build =
global delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction.
=20
    On August 3, 1998 The Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team approach =
the administrative gate of the Electric Boat Corporation, where Kevin =
Cassidy was on hand to greet the team.=20
=20
    Libby Davies requested a meeting, information about the production =
capabilities and access to The Electric Boat Corporation. Once again =
Mr.. Cassidy denied all requests citing The Electric Boat =
Corporation=92s contract with the US Navy as reason why access would be =
denied. Under the terms of the contract The Electric Boat Corporation =
cannot permit visitors unless they have military clearance, they indeed =
are required to make reports to the contractor of all activities that =
occur around the facility.=20
=20
Libby Davies =96 Developing weapons of mass destruction is a violation =
of the basic principles of humanity and we believe these private =
corporations are as complicit in this as anyone else.

    Both Libby Davies and Clayton Ramey explained to Mr.. Cassidy that =
The Electric Boat Corporation and even Mr.. Cassidy were subordinate to =
international law and norms. The World Court has made an advisory =
opinion stating that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is =
generally illegal. Thus, under the Nuremberg principles each individual =
is responsible for opposing illegal acts of governments =96 The Electric =
Boat Corporation and Mr. Cassidy are not made immune because of private =
contracts or business arrangements.=20
Libby Davies was joined by two camera people on an aerial inspection of =
the Electric Boat Corporation and the nearby US naval port. The aerial =
inspection was recorded on video and still camera. The photographs =
record a fleet of submarines leaving port and show one submarine in the =
dry dock of the Electric Boat Corporation. As well, there are very clear =
photos of 21 missile silos.
=20
The Role of International Citizens=92 Weapons Inspections
=20
Peter Coombes =96 the purpose of the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons =
Inspection Team is to legitimize citizen involvement in abolition of =
nuclear weapons and global verification of nuclear weapons disarmament =
agreements.

    The goal of the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team is the =
abolition of nuclear weapons. The vast majority of people around the =
world believe in abolition, nuclear weapons are costly and useless, and =
they are too dangerous to keep. The role of citizens=92 is to make our =
governments act before we face an intentional or accidental nuclear =
weapons catastrophe.
=20
    During each inspection the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection =
Team diligently works toward gaining unrestricted access to nuclear =
weapons sites. The veil of secrecy surrounding nuclear weapons must be =
lifted and that is why it is essential that authorities recognize the =
seriousness of our requests. The moment we are recognized and permitted =
to proceed with an inspection we will have swung open the door to full =
and unrestricted public accountability.
=20
    By its actions the Canadian Citizens=92 Weapons Inspection Team is =
reaching out to thousands of people to demonstrate that the threat of =
nuclear weapons is a danger to everyone and that each of us can oppose =
them. The vast majority of people who believe we must abolish nuclear =
weapons need a myriad of tactics to involve them =96 from petitions, =
letters to editors and lobbying politicians to rallies, and the =
Citizens' Weapons Inspection Teams.
It is our aspiration that people around the world will use our model of =
the citizens' weapons inspection team as a means to challenge the =
dangerous belief that nuclear weapons offer security. Citizens can and =
must demand accountability. The Canadian Citizens' Weapons Inspection =
Team is one model that can garner support from the millions of citizens =
who are now on the sidelines wanting to be involved in nuclear weapons =
abolition.
=20
Principles
=20
The team operates under these five principles:
    a.. Lawful. Work within the laws of the country.=20
    2.. Transparent. Inspectors operate in a public, transparent mode. =
We will present ourselves in a public location and request the =
cooperation of the military and political leaders and staff of any =
facility to be inspected.=20
    3.. International. All inspections will be led by international =
observers. As Canadians we will lead inspections to countries around the =
world, but we will not lead inspections within Canada. We will =
facilitate and participate in inspections of Canadian facilities, but we =
will require foreign nationals to lead the team.=20
    4.. Community. We will seek the participation of well known =
community leaders, official representatives of groups, elected =
officials, retired military personnel, and experts.=20
    5.. Local. We will ensure that we are working with local, =
on-the-ground peace groups and community leaders.

=20
INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS WEAPONS INSPECTION TEAM=20

Libby Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver East, Canada
Ms. Davies has been active in politics and social movements all of her =
life. She served on Vancouver City Council, and was instrumental in =
having Vancouver declared a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone. Ms. Davies was =
elected as the federal parliamentary member for Vancouver East for the =
New Democratic Party of Canada in 1997.

William R. Dyson, Democratic State Representative to the Connecticut =
Legislature from New Haven=20
Mr.. Dyson is co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee of the =
Connecticut State Legislature. He has long advocated a change in social =
priorities from military spending to funding for human needs.

Peter Coombes, President of End the Arms Race, Canada
Mr.. Coombes is a father, political activist, and holds his Masters of =
International Relations in Development Studies. He is the President of =
End the Arms Race, one of the largest peace groups in Canada that is =
best known for organizing the annual Vancouver Walk for Peace. He =
recently participated in an international peace conference organized by =
the International Peace Bureau held in Moscow.

Phyllis Creighton, Anglican Church of Canada
Ms. Creighton is a long-time board member of Project Ploughshares and =
Science  for Peace in Canada, as well as the General Senate of the =
Anglican Church of Canada, which is the policy making body of the =
church. She has developed and implemented the Church's position opposing =
nuclear weapons.

David Morgan, President of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, Canada
Mr.. Morgan is a writer, researcher, peace activist, and veteran. As =
president of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, he leads a group of Canadian =
veterans who work for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Most =
recently, he traveled to the Hague where he attended the World Court's =
hearings on the legality of nuclear weapons.

Alyn Ware, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear =
Policy, New Zealand
Mr.. Ware, a citizen of New Zealand, is a board member of the NGO =
Committee on Disarmament and a Pacific Representative to the =
International Peace Bureau. He has been instrumental in achieving the =
International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on the legality of the =
threat or use of nuclear weapons, and in drafting a Model Nuclear =
Weapons Convention that has now been circulated by the UN.

Clayton Ramey, Peace and Disarmament Program Coordinator of the =
Fellowship of Reconciliation, US.
Mr.. Ramey, a writer and activist, delivered medicine to Iraq this past =
May with a delegation of nearly one hundred US religious and civic group =
leaders and observed the suffering of the Iraqi people due to economic =
sanctions firsthand.

Vincent Romano, Peace and Disarmament Program Intern, Fellowship of =
Reconciliation, US=20
Mr.. Romano is the US organizer of the citizens=92 inspection team and =
has actively worked as a writer and peacemaker for the abolition of =
nuclear weapons in the United States.

=20
Veronica Keitt, Independent Reporter and Film maker, New York
Ms. Keitt is the host of The VK Report aired on New York City Community =
Access Television.
=20
Nya Gregor Fleron, Writer, Denmark
Ms. Fleron is an intern with the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, a =
peace activist, writer, and a citizen of Denmark.

=20
Leif Erickson, Student University of British Columbia, Canada
Charlie Brown, Fellowship of Reconciliation, New York
Paul Brailsford, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, Ipswich =
MA
John Schuhardt, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, Ipswich =
MA
David Silk, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, Ipswich MA
Joanne Sheehan, War Resisters League, New York





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<HTML>
<HEAD>

<META content=3Dtext/html;charset=3Diso-8859-1 =
http-equiv=3DContent-Type><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 =
HTML//EN">
<META content=3D'"MSHTML 4.72.3110.7"' name=3DGENERATOR>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>CANADIAN =
CITIZENS’ WEAPONS=20
INSPECTION TEAM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Libby Davies – =
The Canadian=20
Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team allows people to get involved in =
a=20
process to make a change. I believe when citizens mobilize, you can =
pressure=20
your government to work.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT> </DIV><FONT face=3DTimes=20
size=3D5>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Report of the Weapons =
Inspection=20
of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Electric Boat =
Corporation, Groton=20
Connecticut</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>August 3,=20
1998<B></B></FONT></DIV></FONT><FONT face=3DTimes size=3D5><FONT =
color=3D#000000=20
face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT> </DIV><FONT face=3DTimes=20
size=3D5>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>by Peter =
Coombes</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>President of End the =
Arms=20
Race</FONT></DIV></FONT><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Suite 405 – 825 =
Granville=20
Street</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Vancouver BC Canada V6Z =

1K9</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2>604/687-3223</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>fax =
604/687-3277</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2>[e-mail]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2>www.peacewire.org</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Executive=20
Summary</FONT></DIV><B><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></B>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>David Morgan – =
The most=20
valuable service that these inspections for weapons of mass destruction =
has=20
accomplished, has been to lawfully visit major nuclear weapons =
facilities and to=20
correctly name, label and connect them in the minds of all people with =
outlawed=20
weapons of mass destruction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIR>
<DIR><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT></DIR></DIR>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    On =
August 3, 1998=20
while the United States Congress passed a bill to extend sanctions =
against Iraq=20
for restricting access to sites suspected of producing weapons of mass=20
destruction The Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team was =
refused=20
access to a restricted site in Groton, Connecticut.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The=20
Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team found that the Electric Boat =
Corporation=20
in Groton, Connecticut maintained production facilities to build and =
refit the=20
delivery systems needed for nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The =
team thus=20
concluded that the Electric Boat Corporation is complicit in =
perpetuating the=20
illicit threat or use of nuclear weapons.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The =
Canadian=20
Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team, organized by End the Arms Race, =

traveled across the continent from Vancouver and Toronto to join members =
of the=20
Fellowship of Reconciliation and community activists from New York and=20
Connecticut to conduct its second weapons inspection. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    =
Leading the=20
inspection was community activist and Canadian Member of Parliament =
Libby Davies=20
(NDP – Vancouver East). Davies was joined by three Canadians: =
Peter=20
Coombes, President of End the Arms Race; David Morgan, President of =
Veterans=20
Against Nuclear Armaments; and Phyllis Creighton representative of the =
Anglican=20
Church of Canada. The team was joined by members located in the U.S.: =
Bill=20
Dyson, Representative Connecticut State Legislature; Vince Romano, =
Clayton Ramey=20
and Charlie Brown of Fellowship of Reconciliation; and Alyn Ware, =
Executive=20
Director of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The =
team found=20
that the material evidence overwhelming proved that Electric Boat =
Corporation=20
had built the trident submarine, a nuclear weapons Ohio-class submarine, =
and the=20
Sea Wolf attack submarine. Even more damaging is that the Electric Boat=20
Corporation maintains the technology and productions facilities to build =
and=20
refit these nuclear weapon delivery systems. The sources include =
documents by=20
government, analysis by expert military researchers and testimony by =
local=20
activists. An aerial inspection of the Electric Boat Corporation and the =
near by=20
U.S. naval base substantiated the conclusions of the team.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Meeting with =
Under-Secretary General=20
for Disarmament, UN</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Phyllis Creighton – The =
Canadian Citizens'=20
Weapons Inspection Team is an inspiration to take our powers, to do =
everything=20
we can to rid the world of the terror of nuclear omnicide.</FONT></DIV>
<DIR>
<DIR><FONT face=3DTimes size=3D4><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial=20
size=3D2></FONT></DIR><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial=20
size=3D2></FONT></FONT></DIR><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    In =
the morning of=20
August 3 the Citizen’s Weapons Inspection Team met with Jayantha=20
Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary General for Disarmament of the United =
Nations.=20
The team met with Mr.. Dhanapala to inform him about citizens’ =
inspection,=20
and to find out how together we can further the cause of nuclear weapons =

abolition.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Dhanapala was very =
open to the=20
idea that citizens’ worldwide could take an active role in =
promoting=20
nuclear weapons disarmament and participate in the verification process. =
He=20
referred to Joseph Rotblat’s appeal that the strongest way to =
ensure the=20
abolition of nuclear weapons was to empower professionals, scientists, =
workers=20
and all citizens with the right to inform an international monitoring =
body of=20
any violations of a nuclear weapons disarmament agreement.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The =
meeting=20
between Mr.. Dhanapala and The Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team =
is a=20
vital bridge between government level diplomacy and direct citizen =
participation=20
in global affairs. The materials and the meeting demonstrated to Mr.. =
Dhanapala=20
that citizens and non-governmental organizations worldwide expect to =
directly=20
participating in nuclear weapons disarmament. When Peter Coombes =
restated the=20
principles of the Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team Mr..=20
Dhanapala was then able to respond by saying that is why he can support =
its=20
work. The conclusion of the meeting is that the Disarmament Affairs =
department=20
and citizens have common ground in which to work together.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    =
Attending the=20
meeting was Libby Davies. Peter Coombes, David Morgan, Phyllis =
Creighton, Vince=20
Romano, Alyn Ware, and Leif Erickson.</FONT></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Inspection of Electric =
Boat=20
Corporation </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT> </DIV><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Libby Davies – I =
think they=20
were expecting civil disobedience. There were tons of police and their =
own=20
security forces.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    On =
July 10, 1998=20
President of End the Arms Race, Peter Coombes sent a letter to the John =
Welch,=20
President of the Electric Boat Corporation asking for unrestricted =
access. A=20
response was received from Kevin M. Cassidy, Director of Human =
Resources,=20
denying access to the Electric Boat facility. He stated that =
"Electric Boat=20
is a secure defense facility; visits by the public are not allowed for =
security=20
reasons," and that "... the issues you raise in your letter =
relate=20
more to national defense policy than to shipbuilding."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>In a follow-up =
telephone conversation=20
Peter Coombes pursued the issue with Mr.. Cassidy, attempted to arrange =
a=20
meeting and confirmed that civil disobedience was not the intent. =
Cassidy=20
reiterated the company’s refusal to allow the inspectors on site =
and=20
obstinately declined an invitation to meet with the Citizens’ =
Weapons=20
Inspection Team. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mike Bell, Vancouver =
Echo 12/8/98=20
– EBC had hired security and called police in advance of what they =

obviously perceived as a dangerous situation.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The =
only danger=20
the Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team possesses is the =
ability to=20
reveal the obvious fact that the United States has the largest =
stockpiles and=20
the greatest potential to build global delivery systems for weapons of =
mass=20
destruction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    On =
August 3, 1998=20
The Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team approach the administrative =
gate of=20
the Electric Boat Corporation, where Kevin Cassidy was on hand to greet =
the=20
team. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    =
Libby Davies=20
requested a meeting, information about the production capabilities and =
access to=20
The Electric Boat Corporation. Once again Mr.. Cassidy denied all =
requests=20
citing The Electric Boat Corporation’s contract with the US Navy =
as reason=20
why access would be denied. Under the terms of the contract The Electric =
Boat=20
Corporation cannot permit visitors unless they have military clearance, =
they=20
indeed are required to make reports to the contractor of all activities =
that=20
occur around the facility. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Libby Davies – =
Developing=20
weapons of mass destruction is a violation of the basic principles of =
humanity=20
and we believe these private corporations are as complicit in this as =
anyone=20
else.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    Both =
Libby Davies=20
and Clayton Ramey explained to Mr.. Cassidy that The Electric Boat =
Corporation=20
and even Mr.. Cassidy were subordinate to international law and norms. =
The World=20
Court has made an advisory opinion stating that the use or threat of use =
of=20
nuclear weapons is generally illegal. Thus, under the Nuremberg =
principles each=20
individual is responsible for opposing illegal acts of governments =
– The=20
Electric Boat Corporation and Mr. Cassidy are not made immune because of =
private=20
contracts or business arrangements. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Libby Davies was joined =
by two camera=20
people on an aerial inspection of the Electric Boat Corporation and the =
nearby=20
US naval port. The aerial inspection was recorded on video and still =
camera. The=20
photographs record a fleet of submarines leaving port and show one =
submarine in=20
the dry dock of the Electric Boat Corporation. As well, there are very =
clear=20
photos of 21 missile silos.</FONT></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>The Role of =
International=20
Citizens’ Weapons Inspections</FONT></DIV><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Peter Coombes – =
the purpose of=20
the Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team is to legitimize =
citizen=20
involvement in abolition of nuclear weapons and global verification of =
nuclear=20
weapons disarmament agreements.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    The =
goal of the=20
Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team is the abolition of =
nuclear=20
weapons. The vast majority of people around the world believe in =
abolition,=20
nuclear weapons are costly and useless, and they are too dangerous to =
keep. The=20
role of citizens’ is to make our governments act before we face an =

intentional or accidental nuclear weapons catastrophe.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    =
During each=20
inspection the Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team =
diligently works=20
toward gaining unrestricted access to nuclear weapons sites. The veil of =
secrecy=20
surrounding nuclear weapons must be lifted and that is why it is =
essential that=20
authorities recognize the seriousness of our requests. The moment we are =

recognized and permitted to proceed with an inspection we will have =
swung open=20
the door to full and unrestricted public accountability.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>    By =
its actions the=20
Canadian Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team is reaching out to =
thousands of=20
people to demonstrate that the threat of nuclear weapons is a danger to =
everyone=20
and that each of us can oppose them. The vast majority of people who =
believe we=20
must abolish nuclear weapons need a myriad of tactics to involve them =
–=20
from petitions, letters to editors and lobbying politicians to rallies, =
and the=20
Citizens' Weapons Inspection Teams.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>It is our aspiration =
that people=20
around the world will use our model of the citizens' weapons inspection =
team as=20
a means to challenge the dangerous belief that nuclear weapons offer =
security.=20
Citizens can and must demand accountability. The Canadian Citizens' =
Weapons=20
Inspection Team is one model that can garner support from the millions =
of=20
citizens who are now on the sidelines wanting to be involved in nuclear =
weapons=20
abolition.</FONT></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2>Principles</FONT></DIV><FONT=20
face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>The team operates under =
these five=20
principles:</FONT></DIV></FONT><FONT face=3DTimes>
<OL><U>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Lawful</U>. Work =
within the laws=20
    of the country. </FONT>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT><U><FONT =
color=3D#000000=20
    face=3DArial size=3D2>Transparent</U>. Inspectors operate in a =
public,=20
    transparent mode. We will present ourselves in a public location and =
request=20
    the cooperation of the military and political leaders and staff of =
any=20
    facility to be inspected. </FONT>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT></FONT><U><FONT=20
    color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>International</U>. All =
inspections will be=20
    led by international observers. As Canadians we will lead =
inspections to=20
    countries around the world, but we will not lead inspections within =
Canada.=20
    We will facilitate and participate in inspections of Canadian =
facilities,=20
    but we will require foreign nationals to lead the team. </FONT>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT><U><FONT =
face=3DTimes><FONT=20
    color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Community</U>. We will seek =
the=20
    participation of well known community leaders, official =
representatives of=20
    groups, elected officials, retired military personnel, and experts.=20
    </FONT></FONT>
    <LI><FONT face=3DTimes><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2></FONT><U><FONT=20
    color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Local</U>. We will ensure that =
we are=20
    working with local, on-the-ground peace groups and community=20
    leaders.</FONT></FONT><FONT face=3DTimes><FONT color=3D#000000 =
face=3DArial=20
    size=3D2></FONT></FONT></LI></OL><FONT face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2><BR></FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS =
WEAPONS=20
INSPECTION TEAM </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2><BR><STRONG>Libby =
Davies, Member of=20
Parliament for Vancouver East, Canada</STRONG></FONT></DIV><FONT =
face=3DTimes>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Ms. Davies has been =
active in=20
politics and social movements all of her life. She served on Vancouver =
City=20
Council, and was instrumental in having Vancouver declared a Nuclear=20
Weapons-Free Zone. Ms. Davies was elected as the federal parliamentary =
member=20
for Vancouver East for the New Democratic Party of Canada in=20
1997.<BR><BR><STRONG>William R. Dyson, Democratic State Representative =
to the=20
Connecticut Legislature from New Haven </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Dyson is co-chair =
of the House=20
Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut State Legislature. He has =
long=20
advocated a change in social priorities from military spending to =
funding for=20
human needs.<BR><BR><STRONG>Peter Coombes, President of End the Arms =
Race,=20
Canada</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Coombes is a =
father, political=20
activist, and holds his Masters of International Relations in =
Development=20
Studies. He is the President of End the Arms Race, one of the largest =
peace=20
groups in Canada that is best known for organizing the annual Vancouver =
Walk for=20
Peace. He recently participated in an international peace conference =
organized=20
by the International Peace Bureau held in Moscow.<BR><BR><STRONG>Phyllis =

Creighton, Anglican Church of Canada</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Ms. Creighton is a =
long-time board=20
member of Project Ploughshares and Science  for Peace in Canada, as =
well as=20
the General Senate of the Anglican Church of Canada, which is the policy =
making=20
body of the church. She has developed and implemented the Church's =
position=20
opposing nuclear weapons.<BR><BR><STRONG>David Morgan, President of =
Veterans=20
Against Nuclear Arms, Canada</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Morgan is a =
writer, researcher,=20
peace activist, and veteran. As president of Veterans Against Nuclear =
Arms, he=20
leads a group of Canadian veterans who work for peace and the abolition =
of=20
nuclear weapons. Most recently, he traveled to the Hague where he =
attended the=20
World Court's hearings on the legality of nuclear =
weapons.<BR><BR><STRONG>Alyn=20
Ware, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, New =

Zealand</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Ware, a citizen of =
New Zealand,=20
is a board member of the NGO Committee on Disarmament and a Pacific=20
Representative to the International Peace Bureau. He has been =
instrumental in=20
achieving the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion on the =
legality=20
of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, and in drafting a Model Nuclear =
Weapons=20
Convention that has now been circulated by the =
UN.<BR><BR><STRONG>Clayton Ramey,=20
Peace and Disarmament Program Coordinator of the Fellowship of =
Reconciliation,=20
US.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Ramey, a writer =
and activist,=20
delivered medicine to Iraq this past May with a delegation of nearly one =
hundred=20
US religious and civic group leaders and observed the suffering of the =
Iraqi=20
people due to economic sanctions firsthand.<BR><BR><STRONG>Vincent =
Romano, Peace=20
and Disarmament Program Intern, Fellowship of Reconciliation, US=20
</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Mr.. Romano is the US =
organizer of=20
the citizens’ inspection team and has actively worked as a writer =
and=20
peacemaker for the abolition of nuclear weapons in the United=20
States.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2><BR></FONT> </DIV><STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Veronica Keitt, =
Independent Reporter=20
and Film maker, New York</FONT></DIV></STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Ms. Keitt is the host =
of The VK=20
Report aired on New York City Community Access =
Television.</FONT></DIV><STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Nya Gregor Fleron, =
Writer,=20
Denmark</FONT></DIV></STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Ms. Fleron is an intern =
with the<B>=20
</B><STRONG>Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, a peace activist, =
writer,=20
and</STRONG> a citizen of Denmark.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial =
size=3D2><BR></FONT> </DIV><STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Leif Erickson, Student =
University of=20
British Columbia, Canada</FONT></DIV></STRONG><STRONG>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3DArial size=3D2>Charlie Brown, =
</STRONG><B>Fellowship=20
of Reconciliation,</B><STRONG> New York</STRONG></FONT></DIV><STRONG>
<DIV>Paul Brailsford, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, =
Ipswich=20
MA</DIV>
<DIV>John Schuhardt, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, =
Ipswich=20
MA</DIV>
<DIV>David Silk, Veterans for Peace, Samantha Smith Chapter #45, Ipswich =

MA</DIV>
<DIV>Joanne Sheehan, War Resisters League, New York</DIV></STRONG>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>

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From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Part of a dialogue on Terrorism, State & Otherwise
Date: 22 Aug 1998 14:57:51 EDT

I am sending out my response to a post from someone on the Left (for whom I
have, generally, substantial respect, as well as frequent disagreements).
I've left his first name -- the world is filled with Jim's - but deleted
anything else, though a copy, of course, goes to him.  Copies go to several
people and a couple of lists -- the issues involved in this are not going
away.

Fraternally,
David McReynolds

Jim,

I will wait for your response when you return from your (well deserved)
holiday.  People can disagree on whether Clinton did this because of Monica.
I think that is so obvious I am a little surprised it isn't a kind of a
"accepted wisdom."  However . . . we can certainly disagree on that.  And
still come back to the central issues.

I agree with your points on the governments in Sudan and Afghanistan.  I never
was enthusiastic about the religious fighters against the Soviets because
while I thought the Soviets should not have invaded Afghanistan, I didn't see
much light at the end of that tunnel and thought we should have kept well out
of it.  (Aside from clear condemnations of the Soviet invasion.)

This is one more case of CIA chickens coming home to roost.  I'm disturbed
(pretty genuinely) by a couple of things.  One is people of your sharpness
buying into the need for the bombings -- whether Monica was involved or not.
Let's leave Monica out entirely.

Clinton and his advisers seem to be giving us an ideal reason for maintaining
the security state -- using the Islamic demon as the reason.  The fact that
our most terrible terrorism came from a young soldier who had seen action in
the Gulf (and said, in a letter to his sister which predated the bombing and
his arrest and trial, that he had been asked in his application to the Special
Forces or whatever that elite group was to take part in domestic drug running
and terrorism for the CIA).

Terrorism is a very hard thing to strike back at and sometimes to define.
Lockerbie was terrorism.  But what about the Reagan attack on Libya?  (And I
stood on the ground in Tripoli and saw where the smart bombs landed -- not
only in Gadaffi's home, where his daughter was murdered, but at the French
Embassy, and on the block were a 3 story apartment building, nowhere near any
official building or military target, has been taken out with the loss of life
of everyone living there.)  The attack on the military barracks in Lebanon was
not responded to -- unless Grenada was Reagan's response.  And what terrorism
justified the slaughter of the Bush invasion of Panama?  Or was that not a
kind of "State Terrorism" of its own?  Or am I wrong in opposing the heavy
loss of civilian life there and questioning US motives in that raid?

We have yet to make a response to the attack on US troop barracks in Saudi
Arabia.  (One logical response would be to get our troops out - I would have
hoped that socialists and even some liberals would agree that NO nation has
the right to foreign military bases outside its own borders, and certainly not
the virtually endless string of bases the US has -- and I'd hope that this
wasn't simply a "pacifist" position but something central to the most
democratic kind of socialism.)

No, what I sense in watching good people fall in line on this is a real
feeling of what it must have been like (sorry, but it fits) in Nazi Germany
before the lights went out.  We ask from this great distance in time why so
few opposed Hitler.  Each time here - Grenada, Libya, Panama, Iraq, we find
the people the US brutalizes are nasty themselves so a key chunk of the Left -
DSA in this case and the liberals just to your right -- keep quiet, or even
become active supporters.

This was, of course, exactly what happened in the early days of the Vietnam
War when the Tonkin Gulf Resolution could sail through with only two
dissenting votes in the Senate.
Clinton and his advisers are unable in reality to deal with terrorism because
it is a hard thing to deal with.  The Israelis have won every battle but never
won this war.  The Irish (or the British troops) have enough sense not to bomb
some Catholic village near Dublin when a terrorist bomb goes off in Northern
Ireland.  (Better sense than the Israelis have -- they always seem quite proud
of their ability to bomb villages they allege contain terrorists.)

There are times when terrorism cannot be dealt with on an immediate basis.
And in those cases it is so tempting for the US to simply use its massive
weapons and hit someone -- anyone.  It scores points with its domestic
opposition.  None of us like to oppose such actions because which of us can
support terrorism or want to seem in any way sympathetic to it?  On Panama, as
an example, Noriega was a terrible person (that he was "our own terrible
person" only made him the more terrible, in my view) so who could defend him?
But the kids that Bush killed were not terrible.  They hadn't lived long
enough to do anything.

Jim, when you say that it is a bad sign when I mention Hitler, I have to say
it is a bad sign when, in closing, you refer to the regimes that were hit --
as if we didn't agree on the nature of those regimes, or as if that explained
or justified anything.  It is always a bad sign when in defense of an illegal
or immoral act the criminal argues that the victim was at least as unpleasant.

There are a couple of pretty central issues behind this.  One is that everyone
(except a handful of us on the Left) is now winking about assassination.  I
thought this country, of all countries, would have learned that you don't wink
at, conspire at, or take part in assassination.  (If only, for the most
bizarre of reasons, because the Begin you wanted to hang yesterday becomes the
head of State, or the Arafat you wanted to assassinate yesterday becomes the
"partner" with whom you must negotiate.)  This is, unhappily, the case in
Afghanistan where US/Pakistan support has given us a regime which is now
shipping heroin out of the country -- to us -- and providing sanctuary for
terrorists.  And now we think we can solve things with an assassination?  Yet
I've seen several posts (and even the NY Times op ed of some months ago in
which Clinton's former young aide suggested we murder Saddam) in which there
is a wistful wish we could handle things as effectively as Mossad (as if
Mossad in fact was very competent)!

Second, there is a real problem in unilaterally deciding the US can hit across
national borders without a legal case.  What is the United Nations for?  What
is the World Court for?  Is it OK to launch these strikes simply because we
are powerful?  In that case, count me out -- that isn't the kind of world I
want to build.  That way lies the "end justifies the means and my heavens look
where we have ended up, with a Gulag" world.

As a pacifist I oppose all military action -- and so it is easy to write off
anything I say after I've said that.  But I would hope all socialists and at
least a handful of liberals would share my questions about political
assassination, about the unilateral use of deadly force, and about -- central
point -- the danger of this security state now lifting up "Islamic terrorists"
as the basis for continuing a regime which has not given us greater security
but does keep the security state fully employed.

Am I the only person who notes that immediately after our decision to smash
terrorism and insure our safety that everything -- every airport, every police
force, etc., goes on double alert?  So who feels safer?

I respect your views enough to hope you can talk me out of my dark mood.  But
as it stands, the longer I watch which way this wind is blowing, the darker my
mood.

Fraternally,
David McReynolds


<< Subj:     Re: Clinton's bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan: time for resignation
 Date:    8/21/98 6:48:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time

 To:    [e-mail]

 Well, I strongly disagreed with your post in response to Leo --
 it's always a bad sign for you when you start talking about Nazis, by
 the way;)
 but I'm on my way to a three-day vacation in my country place, so I'll
 wait to respond until Monday night.  This business will go on for a while,
 and we may know more by then anyway.
 The nub of my point, as Monty Python would say, was that Clinton's
 personal troubles had nothing to do with this -- he acted as any
 conceivable President of the US would have acted.  That doesn't mean he
 was right; it just means that personalizing this onto him is a diversion
 from debating the policy itself.  This is part of a long-standing
 struggle between the US and its allies and a variety of Islamic groups
 opposed to them, and I think you did the question a disservice by glomming
 onto Monicagate -- if you have an alternate policy put it forward.  And
 remember that the governments in question here are the Khartoum regime which
 is committing genocide on its black citizens, the Taliban in Afghanistan,
 and terrorists who were willing to kill or wound thousands of African
 bystanders to get 15 Americans.





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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Loring Wirbel <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re:  (abolition-usa) Part of a dialogue on Terrorism, State & Otherwise
Date: 22 Aug 1998 15:28:31 -0700 (PDT)

David M:
    Thank you for your principled stance on the bombings issue.  While
we can always point to what dangerous characters the bin Laden group
is comprised of, it seems far more successful to do the kind of
community ostracizing that the citizens of Dundalk did to the so-called
"Real IRA", than to bomb the bejesus out of someone.  If we look at
Khartoum, Africans and Arabs in that city have traditionally hated each
other, yet they were marching arm in arm, denouncing the U.S.  And
Cohen and Albright and Berger think the U.S. gained ground in promoting
its interests there???!!!
     I am as puzzled as you that people who would identify themselves
as progressives could even BEGIN to justify those bombings.  Madeleine
made very clear during the Aug. 20 press conference that the U.S. will
not consider any claims of sovereignty when pursuing its interests, and
basically considers the planet its own to play with.  People who
provide this even tacit support are supporting a unipolar superpower
who insists on playing zero-sum, king-on-the-mountain games.

Loring Wirbel
CPIS/PPJPC
Colorado Springs

[e-mail]



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Nuclear Plant Highest Taxpayer, MD 8/13/98 Wash Post
Date: 23 Aug 1998 10:15:12 -0400

Here's a telling quote from the Washington Post 8/13/98,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-08/13/013l-081398-idx.html

         ... But Krug, Mister and Frazer said giving a retroactive tax
              break to residents would hurt the county next year when
              it tries to convince lawmakers in Annapolis that it will
              be financially devastated by deregulation of the electric
              utilities.

              The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is the county's
              largest single taxpayer, providing about 20 percent of its
              tax base. Plant revenue is likely to dip after deregulation,
              and early projections show that the county would lose
              $3.6 million to $10 million a year in revenue.

              To grant a retroactive tax cut, the county would have to
              seek special legislation from the General Assembly.

This must explain why local governments are so silent about nuclear power
plants.  Shortsighted, aren't they?

Ellen Thomas
[e-mail]

_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) FWD: Low Level Radiation and Implications for Medicine and the
Date: 24 Aug 1998 17:50:44 -0400

8/24/98

Dear friends with radiation health interests:

I wanted to spread the word about a medical symposium to be held September
26 & 27, 1998 in New York City.  To attend this is a fairly expensive
proposition, with $100 (non MDs) for registration, as well as travel and
lodging and meals in NYC, but if you can manage it, it will be well worth
attending.  Dr. Bill Reid from Oak Ridge will be speaking as a physician who
has treated radiation and chemical damaged patients; other wonderful
scientists and MDs are expected too.  (see program below)  It is approved
for up to 12.5 CME credits as well.   It will be held at the New York
Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY  11937; sponsored by STAR and
the Foundation for Better Health Care.

I have been told by Dr. Caldicott that one of the sponsoring groups (STAR:
Standing for the Truth About Radiation) has little to no funds for
subsidizing travel.  It may be worth emailing or calling to check that.
Please contact:  Carrie Clark, [e-mail]; phone: [phone];
fax: 516: 324-2203.


>From the brochure:
"The controversies surrounding debates about low-level radiation's effects
on human health are long-standing and unresolved.  Standard-setting bodies
have lowered recommended radiation protection standards over a half dozen
times since they were first established over 70 years ago, as new data and
new interpretations have called into question the standards formerly
perceived as "safe."

"This conference assembles those in the forefront of these debates, with
representation from health physics, epidemiology, the nuclear industry,
medicine, the activist community, and more.

" Recent data on low level radiation is making obsolete the radiation
standards derived from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Studies.  This conference
will address the medical and biological implications of this latest
scientific literature on low level radiation and the ramifications for the
nuclear industry.  With a forum for open debate and discussion, we hope to
move toward some resolution of the current regulatory dilemma.  Above all,
we hope to learn from each other."

Speakers in order of appearance (I used titles only when clearly given in
the brochure) and the title of their presentation:
Saturday, 9/26:
Dr. Donald Luria, M.D., Dept. of Preventative Medicine and Community Health,
New Jersey Medical School. "Potential Medical Consequences of Food
Irradiation."
Dr. Alice Stewart, M.D., FRCP, Dept of Public Health and Epidemiology,
University of Birmingham, "A-Bomb Survivors:  Reassessment of the Radiation
Hazard."
Dr. Hal Morganstern, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public
Health, "Report of the Rocketdyne/Atomic Workers, Incidence of Maligancies."

Eric Wright, Medical Research Council at Harwell, Oxfordshire, "Low-Dose
Radiation and Genetic Damage."
Dr. Steve Wing, PhD and Dr. David Richardson, PhD, Department of
Epidemiology, UNC Chapel Hill, "Radiation and Mortality among Department of
Energy workers, with particular reference to current standards."
(panel discussion)

Carrie Clark, Doctoral candidate in History, SUNY Stony Brook, "Historical
Perspectives on the Nuclear Weapons and Power Industries with particular
reference to radiation exposures."
Jack Fix, Epidemiologist, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, "Dosimetry Program
at Hanford, Radiation Standards, and National Radiation Registry."
Dr. Greg Wilkinson, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Buffalo,
"Mutagenic and Carcinogenic Effects of Alpha Radiation."

Dr. Otto Raabe, President, Health Physics Society, Institute of Toxicology
and Environmental Health, "Three Dimensional Models of Radiation Risk."
Dr. Richard Clapp, PhD, Associate Professor, Environmental Health, Boston
University, School of Public Health, Environmental Health Division,
"Incidence of Malignance in Populations adjacent to the Pilgrim Nuclear
Reactor."
Dr. Myron Pollycove, MD, Professor Emeritus of Laboratory Medicine and
Radiology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco;
Visiting Fellow, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "Molecular Biology,
Epidemiology, and Low-dose Radiation."
Tony Mazzochi, Presidential Ass't, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
International Union.
Thurman Wenzl, Research Industrial Hygenist, NIOSH, "Possible Impacts of
recent Radiation Research on Adequacy of Standards and Guidelines."
(panel discussions)

Evening Dinner

Sunday, 9/27
Dr. Helen Caldicott, MD, President Emeritus, Physicians for Social
Responsibility, "Fallout Studies."
Dr, Arjun Makhijani, PhD, President of the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research, "Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Production
and Testing."
Bernie Goldstein, Director, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Institute, "CRESP: A Stakeholder based Approach to Risk Assessment for
Radionuclide Contamination at DOE Sites."

Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, PhD, Senior Associate, Radioactive Waste Management
Associates, "Mobile Chernobyl, Casks Temperatures, Volability, and Isotopes."
Steve Frishman, Geologist, Technical Policy Coordinator, Nevada  Agency on
Nuclear Projects, "Political and Technical Strategies re: Yucca Mountain."
Don Hancock, Director, Nuclear Waste Safety Program, Southwest Research and
Information Institute, Albuquerque, "Carlsbad and Transuranic Wastes."
Diane D'Arrigo, NIRS, "Below Regulatory Concern and Radioactive Metal
Recycling."
Mary Olsen, NIRS, "MOX Fuel and Food Irradiation."
(panel discussion)

William Arkin, Consultant to NRDC "Post Cold War Nuclear Weapons,
Stewardship, and Counterproliferation."
Jonathan Schell, Author, Fate of the Earth, "The Case for Abolition."

Admiral Gene Carroll, USN, Ret., Deputy Director, Center for Defense
Information, "The Military Route to Abolition of Nuclear Weapons."

Dr. Helen Caldicott, MD, President Emeritus, PSR, Summary and Closing.

Possible Sunday additions:  Dr. William Reid, MD, Oak Ridge; Dr. Asaf
Duracovic, MD, PhD, FACP











The Tennessean's articles on the human health effects of toxins in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee:  http://www.edge.net/~lgreen/oakridge/toxic1.htm

Jacqueline O. Kittrell
General Counsel
American Environmental Health Studies Project, Inc.
6328 Strawberry Plains Pike
Knoxville, Tennessee  37914
423.522.1139
[e-mail]




_______________________________________________________________________

* Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! *
_______________________________________________________________________

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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "William F. Santelmann, Jr." <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) First meeting of Lexington (MA) Committee for Abolition 2000
Date: 25 Aug 1998 19:32:39 -0400

A meeting to organize the Lexington (MA) Committee for
Abolition 2000 will take place Wednesday, August 26, 1998,
at 7:30pm in the Lexington United Methodist Church, 2600
Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, MA.

The Committee's goal is to place an Abolition 2000
Resolution question on the town ballot for the spring of
1999. A petition drive is proposed to alert and educate our
citizens to the present danger as well as to qualify for
inclusion on the ballot.

>From all indications, it will be a tough battle for us! We
would like to hear from other groups engaged in the same
battle in your own towns and cities. We will share our
experiences with you!

William F. Santelmann, Jr.
[e-mail]
30 Fairlawn Ln
Lexington, MA 02420-2715


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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) ACTION ALERT/Tritium: Bill responds
Date: 26 Aug 1998 13:58:00 -0400

>X-UID: 000e79a9
>Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 12:23:10 -0400
>Subject: Tritium: Bill responds
>To: [e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>[e-mail]
>Cc: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
>From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>To: Tritium trackers
>Fr: Lisa Ledwidge
>
>Below is a letter I received today from President Bill Clinton regarding
>the Administration's position on tritium and the Markey-Graham
>amendment.  No surprises, they still oppose the amendment.  The letter
>is apparently in response to the letter 65 organizations sent him on
>July 28, also attached below.
>
>As you know, the U.S. does not need more tritium to maintain a "credible
>nuclear deterrent."  Tritium can be recycled from excess or dismantled
>nuclear weapons, of which there are plenty.  Tritium production in
>civilian reactors would violate a long standing US nonproliferation
>tenet which separates military and civilian nuclear activities.
>
>I hope you will encourage your networks to take action in support of the
>Markey-Graham amendment which would prohibit the production of tritium
>in commercial nuclear reactors. We are trying to convince the Defense
>Authorization bill conference committee to include it in the final
>bill.  The committee will reconvene in early September so action is
>needed now.  You'll find an action alert below.
>
>Thank you very much.  Please let me know what you hear, and if you need
>more information.
>
>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>. Lisa Ledwidge                         .
>. Physicians for Social Responsibility  .
>. 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 700        .
>. Washington, DC  20005  USA            .
>. tel. [phone] ext. 222            .
>. fax [phone]                      .
>. http://www.psr.org                    .
>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
>THE WHITE HOUSE
>WASHINGTON
>
>August 18, 1998
>
>Ms. Lisa Ledwidge
>Associate Director for Security Programs
>Physicians for Social Responsibility
>1101 Fourteenth Street, N.W., Suite 700
>Washington, D.C. 20005
>
>Dear Ms. Ledwidge:
>
>Thank you for your letter regarding tritium production. The
>Markey-Graham Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY
>1999 would prohibit the use of a commercial light water reactor for the
>production of tritium for use in United States nuclear deterrent
>elements.
>
>The Markey-Graham Amendment assumes that the use of such reactors to
>produce tritium is inconsistent with our nonproliferation policy. My
>Administration has extensively reviewed this issue and we have concluded
>that the use of a commercial light water reactor to produce tritium
>would not be inconsistent with U.S. nonproliferation policy, and that
>the Department of Energy should continue to pursue the reactor option.
>
>The United States must establish a reliable source of tritium to
>maintain a credible nuclear deterrent. My Administration is pursuing a
>dual-track strategy for tritium production that calls for the
>development of two technology options: use of a commercial light water
>reactor or the construction of a linear accelerator. We remain on track
>to make a final tritium technology decision by December 1998.
>
>The Markey-Graham Amendment, by prematurely terminating one of the
>tritium production options, prejudges the outcome of the tritium
>decision-making process, and would preclude a decision based on a
>careful and deliberate cost, technical and policy review of each option.
>Such a review is essential to ensuring that we continue to reliably and
>economically meet our security needs. For this reason, I oppose the
>Markey-Graham Amendment.
>
>Again, thank you for sharing your concerns with me on this very
>important issue.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Bill Clinton
>
>*******************************************************
>
>TRITIUM PRODUCTION IN CIVILIAN POWER PLANTS ENDANGERS NATIONAL SECURITY
>AND UNDERMINES U.S. NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
>
>July 28, 1998
>
>The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
>President of the United States of America
>The White House
>1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
>Washington D.C. 20500
>
>Dear President Clinton:
>
>On behalf of national, regional and local organizations representing
>hundreds of thousands of citizens nationwide, we strongly oppose
>Department of Energy (DOE) plans to utilize commercial nuclear power
>reactors to produce tritium for nuclear weapons.  In our view, this
>policy blurs the line between military and civilian nuclear power and
>sets a dangerous precedent.  In addition, further reductions in nuclear
>arsenals, which you have supported, would make this policy unnecessary.
>
>We write to urge your Administration to support the language of the
>Markey-Graham amendment to the FY99 Defense Authorization bill,
>prohibiting the use of commercial nuclear reactors for the production of
>tritium.
>
>It has been the longstanding policy of the U.S. to separate military and
>civilian uses of nuclear technology.  We stand behind that policy and
>continue to believe that in this area, the US must make
>non-proliferation concerns paramount.  Plans to produce tritium in
>commercial reactors have already drawn international criticism; for
>instance, in response to concerns about the potential military
>applications of its second nuclear reactor, Egypt criticized the use of
>Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar reactor for "military purposes"
>(Arabic News, October 1997).
>
>Section 57e of the Atomic Energy Act forbids special nuclear material
>produced in a commercial reactor from being used "for nuclear explosive
>purposes."  While the definition "special nuclear material" does not
>include tritium, this technicality does not mask the fact that the DOE
>plans to use a source of civilian electricity as a source of material
>for nuclear weapons.
>
>Prohibiting the use of commercial reactors for tritium production will
>not, as DOE has claimed, jeopardize national security.  Other viable
>options exist, including a re-evaluation of the "need date" for tritium
>production.  The current U.S. time line for securing a new source of
>tritium is based on out-dated thinking in terms of the size of the U.S.
>nuclear arsenal; the DOE still bases its planning on a START I arsenal.
>Implementation of START II will delay the "need" for new tritium until
>at least 2011 because the tritium from the nuclear weapons being retired
>under the provisions of the START treaties can be recycled into the
>nuclear weapons slated to remain in the arsenal.  The lower nuclear
>force levels envisioned under the broad outlines of START III, which you
>successfully negotiated with President Yeltsin last year, will delay the
>"need" for new tritium even further into the 21st century.
>
>The United States does not need to move forward with a tritium program
>that has the potential to undercut longstanding non-proliferation
>policy.  Please prohibit the commercial reactor production of tritium:
>support the Markey-Graham language in the Defense Authorization bill.
>Please use the power of your office to support this language, which is
>so crucial to our national security, rather than to oppose it.
>
>Thank you very much for considering our views on this important
>matter.    Please direct correspondence to: Lisa Ledwidge, Physicians
>for Social Responsibility, 1101 14th St. NW, Suite 700, Washington DC
>20005, tel. [phone], fax [phone].
>
>Sincerely,
>
>NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
>
>Robin Caiola
>20/20 Vision
>
>Kay Camp
>Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
>
>Tom Clements
>Greenpeace International
>
>Scott Denman
>Safe Energy Communication Council
>
>Maureen Eldredge
>Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
>
>Bruce Hall
>Peace Action
>
>John Klotz
>Sierra Club Nuclear Waste Task Force
>
>David Krieger
>Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
>
>Lisa Ledwidge
>Physicians for Social Responsibility
>
>Michael Marriotte
>Nuclear Information Resource Service
>
>Christopher Ney
>War Resisters League
>
>Maurice Paprin
>Fund for New Priorities in America
>
>Jim Riccio
>Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project
>
>Dave Robinson
>Pax Christi USA
>
>Susan Shaer
>Women's Action for New Directions
>
>Edith Vallastrigo
>Women Strike for Peace
>
>Joe Volk
>Friends Committee on National Legislation
>
>Paul Walker
>Veterans for Peace
>
>Barbara Weidner
>Grandmothers for Peace International
>
>Peter Weiss
>Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
>
>REGIONAL AND LOCAL GROUPS
>
>Bill Akin
>Tennessee Peace Action
>
>Sue Bailey
>Nashville Peace Action, Tennessee
>
>Mavis Belisle
>The Peace Farm ,Texas
>
>Patricia Birnie
>GE Stockholders for a Sustainable, Nuclear Free Future, Arizona
>
>Jacqueline Cabasso
>Western States Legal Foundation, California
>
>Francis Chiappa
>Cleveland Peace Action
>
>Clark Coan
>The Southwind Group, Kansas
>
>Vina Colley
>Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security,
>Kentucky
>
>Van Crandall
>Sierra Club North Carolina
>
>Virginia Dollar
>Alternatives In Action!, Georgia
>
>Bruce Drew
>Prairie Island Coalition, Minnesota
>
>Dave Druding
>Peoples Action for a Safe Environment
>
>Marylin Elie
>The Indian Point Project, New York
>
>Eric Epstein
>Three Mile Island Alert, Pennsylvania
>
>Barbara George
>Women's Energy Matters,
>California
>
>Roxane George
>Flagstaff Opposed to Nuclear Transportation, Arizona
>
>Claire Greensfelder
>Plutonium Free Future, California
>
>Don Hancock
>Southwest Research and Information Center, New Mexico
>
>Ann Harris
>We The People, Inc
>Tennessee
>
>Erica Harrold
>California Peace Action
>
>Dawn Hawkins
>Wolf Creek Watchdog Group, Kansas
>
>Barbara Hickernell
>The Alliance to Close Indian Point, New York
>
>Daniel Hirsch
>Committee to Bridge the Gap, Washington
>
>Ralph Hutchinson
>Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Tennessee
>
>Molly Johnson
>Save Ward Valley, California
>
>Judith Johnsrud
>Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power, Pennsylvania
>
>Deb Katz
>Citizens Awareness Network, Massachusetts
>
>Marylia Kelley
>Tri-Valley CAREs (Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment),
>California
>
>Dan Kerlinsky MD
>New Mexico Physicians for Social Responsibility
>
>
>Jacqueline Kittrell
>American Environmental Health Studies Project, Tennessee
>
>Phillip Klasky
>Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition, California
>
>Paige Knight
>Hanford Watch, Oregon
>
>David A. Kraft
>Nuclear Energy Information Service, Illinois
>
>Mary Lampert
>Massachusetts Citizens for Safe Energy
>
>Lloyd Marbet
>Don't Waste Oregon
>
>Mark Marcoplos
>Orange County Greens, North Carolina
>
>Tom Marshall
>Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Colorado
>
>Kevin Martin
>Illinois Peace Action
>
>David Lyons McBride
>Georgians Against Nuclear Energy
>
>Pamela S. Meidell
>Atomic Mirror/Earth Ways Foundation, California
>
>Greg Mello
>Los Alamos Study Group, New Mexico
>
>Richard Nielsen
>Citizen Alert, Nevada
>
>Richard Ochs
>Maryland Safe Energy Coalition
>
>Anu Pugalia
>Our Earth, University of Oklahoma
>
>Alfredo Quarto
>Mangrove Action Project, Washington
>
>Wendy Perron
>Physicians for Social Responsibility, New York
>City
>
>Peggy Prince
>Los Alamos Action Coalition, New Mexico
>
>Andy Reid
>The Pacific Party, Oregon
>
>Betty Schroeder
>Arizona Safe Energy Coalition
>
>Alice Slater
>Global Resource Action Center for the Environment Public Fund, New York
>City
>
>Gail Snyder
>Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, Colorado
>
>Lynne Stembridge
>Hanford Environmental Action League, Washington
>
>Ellen Thomas
>Proposition One, Washington, DCKathy Thornton, RSM
>
>NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
>
>Judy Treichel
>Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force
>
>Amy Vas Nunes
>The Connecticut Green Party
>
>Chris Williams
>Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana
>
>Greg Wingard
>Waste Action Project, Washington
>
>
>cc:
>
>The Honorable Al Gore
>Vice President of the United States of America
>ATTN: Leon Furth
>Old Executive Office Building
>Washington D.C.  20501
>fax [phone]
>
>The Honorable Madeleine Albright
>Secretary of State
>ATTN: Lynn Davis and Robert Einhorn, Arms Control and International
>Security Affairs
>Department of State
>2201 C St. NW
>Washington, D.C.  20520
>fax [phone]
>
>The Honorable William Cohen
>Secretary of Defense
>ATTN: Franklin Miller, International Security Policy, and Franklin
>Kramer, International Security Affairs
>The Pentagon
>Washington, D.C. 20301
>fax [phone]
>
>The Honorable Bill Richardson
>Secretary of Energy Designate
>Forrestal Building
>1000 Independence Ave. SW
>Washington, D.C.  20585
>fax [phone]
>
>
>The Honorable John Holum
>Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
>Affairs
>Department of State
>2201 C St. NW
>Washington, D.C.  20520
>fax [phone]
>
>The Honorable Sandy Berger
>National Security Advisor
>ATTN: Robert Bell
>The White House
>1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
>Washington, D.C. 20500
>fax [phone]
>
>John Podesta, White House Chief of Staff
> fax [phone]
>
>Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee
>
>House National Security Committee, Defense Authorization Conferees
>
>The Honorable Thomas Daschle
>Minority Leader
>U.S. Senate
>Washington D.C.  20510
>
>The Honorable Richard Gephardt
>Minority Leader
>U.S. House of Representatives
>Washington D.C.  20515
>
>*******************************************************
>
>ACTION ALERT
>August 1998
>
>Ask Congress to
>STOP BOMB MATERIAL PRODUCTION IN COMMERCIAL REACTORS
>
>Capitol Switchboard:  202-224-3121
>
>The Department of Energy is set to make a decision on tritium production
>this year.  Tritium is a key component of modern nuclear weapons, the H
>in H-bomb.  Producing it in commercial reactors would violate a long
>standing US policy separating civilian and military nuclear programs.
>
>DOE's own documents have stated that using commercial reactors for
>tritium production "could tarnish an important symbol of US nuclear
>restraint..."  The House of Representatives wisely  included language in
>their Defense Authorization Bill that would prohibit the production of
>tritium in commercial reactors.
>
>But this language, called the Markey-Graham amendment, is at risk of
>being excluded from the final bill, which is now in House-Senate
>conference committee.  Timing of the conference may not be until
>September, but we believe that staff will be working out the difference
>in the bills this month.  I will keep you posted if the schedule
>changes.
>
>*** WHAT YOU CAN DO ***
>
>URGE MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE (LISTED BELOW) TO SUPPORT THE
>MARKEY-GRAHAM LANGUAGE IN THE DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL.
>
>202-224-3121 (Capitol Switchboard)
>
>The Honorable __________                The Honorable _______
>US House of Representatives             US Senate
>Washington DC 20515                     Washington DC 20510
>
>Please act before Labor Day, September 7, 1998, when the full Congress
>is back in session.  Also, please let me know of any response you
>receive.  Thank you.
>
>. Lisa Ledwidge
>. Physicians for Social Responsibility
>. 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 700
>. Washington, DC  20005  USA
>. tel. [phone] ext. 222
>. fax [phone]
>. http://www.psr.org
>
>*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
>
>TALKING POINTS ON TRITIUM
>
>==> Plans to produce nuclear weapons materials like tritium undercut our
>non-proliferation goals. The U.S. has long maintained a clear
>distinction between nuclear weapons work and commercial nuclear
>programs.  The US has tried to persuade  other nations to do the same.
>Violating this long-standing policy would set a dangerous precedent
>worldwide.
>
>==> In addition to non-proliferation concerns, using commercial reactors
>to produce tritium has serious  environmental and public health impacts.
>Tritium is extraordinarily difficult to contain.  Elevated tritium
>levels have already been found in the air and water around reactor
>sites.  Far from harmless, tritium contamination has been associated
>with a variety of public health problems including birth defects and
>cancers.
>
> ==> DOE's concern and time line for tritium production are based on
>out-dated thinking in terms of the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
>The DOE still bases its planning on a START I (Strategic Arms Reduction)
>arsenal. Implementation of START II - which has  been ratified by the
>U.S. Senate and is awaiting action in the Russian Duma - will delay the
>"need" for new tritium until at least 2011.  As we comply with START II
>we can recycle the tritium from the dismantled warheads to those slated
>to remain in the arsenal.   The lower nuclear force levels envisioned
>under the broad outlines of START III agreed to by President Clinton and
>Yeltsin last year will delay the "need" for new tritium even further in
>to 21stcentury.
>
>*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
>
>CONFEREES - HOUSE
>
>Conferees for the House from the National Security Committee on the
>Defense Authorization Conference:
>
>Republicans:
>Spence (SC-Chair)
>Stump (AZ)
>Hunter (CA)
>Kasich (OH)
>Bateman (VA)
>Hansen (UT)
>Weldon (PA)
>Hefley (CO)
>Saxton (NJ)
>Buyer (IN)
>Fowler (FL)
>McHugh (NY)
>Watts (OK)
>Thornberry (TX)
>Chambliss (GA)
>Jones (NC)
>Pappas (NJ)
>Riley (AL)
>
>Democrats:
>Skelton (MO)
>Sisisky (VA)
>Spratt (SC)
>Ortiz (TX)
>Pickett (VA)
>Evans (IL)
>Taylor (MS)
>Abercrombie (HI)
>Meehan (MA)
>Harman (CA)
>McHale (PA)
>Kennedy (RI)
>Allen (ME)
>Snyder (AR)
>Maloney (CT)
>
>
>CONFEREES - SENATE
>
>All Senate Armed Services Committee members are on the Defense
>Authorization Conference:
>
>Republicans:                            Democrats:
>Thurmond (SC-Chair)                     **Levin (MI-Ranking member)
>Warner (VA)                             Kennedy (MA)
>McCain (AZ)                             Bingaman (NM)
>Coats (IN)                              Glenn (OH)
>Smith (NH)                              Byrd (WV)
>Kempthorne (ID)                         Robb (VA)
>Inhofe (OK)                             Lieberman (CT)
>Santorum (PA)                           Cleland (GA)
>Snowe (ME)
>Roberts (KS)
>
>
>**SENATOR LEVIN IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO CONTACT. He is the ranking
>minority member of the Defense Authorization Conference and we need his
>support to maintain the Markey- Graham language in the conference.
>Senator Levin spoke on the Senate floor in support for not limiting
>DOE's choice for additional tritium production.  By saying this, he is
>speaking in opposition to the Markey-Graham language.  If you have
>relatives or friends in Michigan, ask them to urge Senator Levin to
>support Markey-Graham.
>
>Senator Carl Levin
>459 Russell Senate Office Building
>Washington, DC  20510-1005
>tel. [phone]
>e-mail [e-mail]
>
>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>. Lisa Ledwidge                         .
>. Physicians for Social Responsibility  .
>. 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 700        .
>. Washington, DC  20005  USA            .
>. tel. [phone] ext. 222            .
>. fax [phone]                      .
>. http://www.psr.org                    .
>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
>Thanks to Kimberly Robson of WAND and Brad Morse of ANA for helping with
>this alert.
>
>
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>Organization: Physicians for Social Responsibility
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Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
of Nuclear Weapons



-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) ACTION ALERT/MANDELA'S VISIT
Date: 26 Aug 1998 14:37:56 -0400

Dear Abolitionists,
Earlier I posted a message that Nelson Mandela is expected in New York
during the General Assembly.  We have also learned that he may be
addressing the Congress.  WE NEED TO GET LOTS OF LETTERS TO HIM URGING THAT
HE SPEAK OUT FORCEFULLY FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION. Mandela is the only world
leader on the stage today who can command the attention of the US media and
the public.  If he comes to the US, it is critical that he speak out in
favor of nuclear abolition to gain the public's ear.

Please send a copy of your letter to Mandela to the NY Mission and DC
Embassy.(addresses below) and post your letter to the caucus so we can keep
track.  My letter follows this message.  Many thanks.  Alice Slater

Write to:
Nelson Mandela
Private Bag x1000
Pretoria, 0001
South Africa

Thank him for South Africa's leadership role in the New Agenda Coalition
and urge him to speak out on the need to begin negotiations now on a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Please fax or mail copies to:
Ambassador Khiphsuizi Jele
Permanent Mission of South Africa to the UN
333 East 38th St.
New York, NY  10016
212-692-2498(fax)

Ambassador Franklin A. Sonn
Embassy of South Africa
3051 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
202-265-1607(fax)




August 26, 1998

President Nelson Mandela
Private Bag x1000
0001 Pretoria
South Africa

Dear President Mandela,

I am writing to thank you for the leadership and support given to the New
Agenda Coalition by South Africa.  It is essential that the nuclear weapons
states move swiftly towards nuclear abolition before too many other
countries go nuclear.

I have learned that you are expected in New York to address the UN General
Assembly, and to Washington DC to address the US Congress.  As the only
world leader today with the moral authority to command the attention of the
US media and the respect of the US public, I urge you to speak out
strongly, while you are in America, in favor of immediate steps for nuclear
abolition and for negotiations to begin immediately on a treaty to
eliminate the nuclear scourge.

My organization is a member of Abolition 2000, a burgeoning global network
of over 1100 NGOs working for the elimination of nuclear weapons.  An
Abolition 2000 Working Group of scientists, international lawyers, and
policy makers produced a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention which has been
submitted to the UN as an official document by Costa Rica.  The Model
Convention lays out a roadmap to nuclear disarmament with adequate controls
and verification.  For those who say this is an impractical task, please
let them know that it is impractical, immoral, and dangerous for the elite
club of nuclear weapons states to cling to their nuclear arsenals.  South
Africa led the way by giving up their nuclear weapons.  Other states must
follow.

We are now organizing a US Nuclear Abolition Campaign.  Unfortunately,
these issues are hardly ever covered in our media.  Indeed, there has been
no mention of the New Agenda Coalition in the US media.  Please speak out
forcefully on this issue during your visit.   It will be an enormous help
to those of us in the US who are trying to capture public attention and
create the political will to end the toxic legacy of the nuclear age.

With much gratitude for your leadership and support.

Sincerely,


Alice Slater

cc:    Ambassador Khiphusizi Jele, South African Mission, NY
    Ambassador Franklin Sonn, Embassy of South Africa, Wash. DC


Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
of Nuclear Weapons



-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Peter Coombes" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Dancing for the media
Date: 26 Aug 1998 23:28:30 -0700

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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Dear Friend,

On July 26 I gave a speech to about 300 people here in Vancouver at the =
Community Development Institute=92s Conference. I was asked to reflect =
on the past ten years of work as a peace activist. You may find my =
comments of interest, especially since I take a critical look at our =
constant need and desire to act for the mainstream media. (I=92ve made a =
few editorial changes since it=92s presentation).  I hope you find it of =
interest.

Peter Coombes, President
End the Arms Race
[e-mail]=20
www.peacewire.org

Reflections on a decade of activism

As a peace activists I=92ve spent the past ten years reacting to =
international events. Over the past ten years the fear of nuclear =
annihilation has receded and interest in the peace movement has dwindled =
to a bare-bones group of workers around the world. In that time:
    a.. Gorbachev came to power, and from the start he began easing =
tensions between East and West.=20
    b.. Then there was the collapse of the Soviet Empire and ultimately =
an end to the Cold War.
    c.. Then there was the Gulf War
    d.. Followed by Gulf War II
    e.. We had French nuclear testing.
    f.. And now India and Pakistan have entered the nuclear Weapons =
Club.=20
As peace workers we=92ve been in full retreat since the late 1980s.=20

The loss of interest in issues of nuclear disarmament and militarism =
since then has meant for the movement and its organizations:
    a.. The hemorrhaging of volunteers to the environmental movement and =
now to the anti-globalization movement.
    b.. Decreased revenue.
    c.. Disintegrating Coalitions
    d.. And thousands of groups have literally disappeared while larger =
groups outside of peace groups have almost completely ignored peace and =
disarmament issues.
Yet, these experiences are not unique to the peace movement. But likely =
we=92ve felt it harder than anyone else has -- mostly because we were so =
high in the mid-1980s we had a long way to fall.=20
Just imagine, in Vancouver, we had a rally in 1986 with over 100,000 =
people walking for nuclear disarmament. No one has been able to do it =
since, no one has even tried. But, just two years later in 1988, the =
number of peace walkers had already dropped and it continued to drop =
until we decided to cancel it in 1993. But even then it was attracting =
about 10,000 people. But we were into the numbers game with the media. =
They considered the Walk a failure because it was only attracting 10,000 =
people. Yet, no one else could consistently, year-after-year, attract =
the same numbers.

The media has probably been our biggest downfall. The peace movement =
made a fatal error -- we relied on the media to cover the story, or at =
least to cover the issues. We expected media bias and often we worked =
hard to overcome it, we even expected an ideological battles with the =
media owners. But there was one thing we did not expect.

But, before I continue, let me go back a few steps. My impression is =
that the experience of the peace movement is not unique to the 1900s. In =
the early part of this century we witnessed the struggle of workers =
forming independent trade unions. Women fought for the right of =
citizenship and the vote. In the 1950s the Black Civil rights movement =
came to the forefront, then the anti-Vietnam war protests, by the 1970s =
the women=92s movement was in full stride again, then came the peace and =
environmental movements, and today we have the anti-globalization =
movement.

All of these movements have had their ups-and downs, their successes and =
failures. And their successes didn=92t always coincide with their peaks =
of popular support. Trade unionism was on the rise in the 1920s, =
thousands of workers were trying to form their own unions, and many more =
were trying to unite to form the "One Big Union". Yet activists in the =
1920s faced some of the most fierce social battles of the century =96 =
the military with tanks and machine guns were often called upon to crush =
union activities. Private police here in Canada used intimidation and =
violence to undermine their work.=20

More than we can imagine, the battles of unionists, feminists, civil =
rights workers and peace activists of the early 1900s to the 1950s set =
the stage for those of us who have been working for progressive social =
change in the 1980s and 1990s.

They achieved some of the major victories =96 women and blacks gained =
the vote but more importantly they were recognized as citizens. Workers =
succeeded in forming national and international unions to improve the =
plight of millions. And there are many more successes.
But unfortunately they also lost some major battles and likely the =
single most important battle lost was over the media. By the end of =
World War II, every independent progressive newspaper in Canada was =
either burned, vandalized, shut-down or politically discredited.

In the 1950s anyone actively and politically left of the Liberal Party =
of Canada was essentially purged from every major institution in Canada =
and the US =96 they were purged from the military, CBC, NFB, and from =
all government postings.

But I didn=92t come here to give any of you a history lesson. Let=92s =
face it, ten years is not a long time.
We have to remember to put things in a longer perspective if we truly =
want to understand where we=92re at and where we are going.

This century has truly been the "Best of times and the Worst of Times".=20

We=92ve made great strides in progressive social change =96 a coal miner =
in Glace Bay on Cape Breton Island in 1901 was equal to the horses that =
were driven down under ground to work their lives in the dark. (The =
horses were treated better then the men and their families.) Women, =
Blacks and Coal Miners were chattel. Those attitudes have dramatically =
changed.

But history hasn=92t been moving along in a straight progressive path. =
It=92s also been an incredibly horrible century. We=92ve built the =
largest military systems in history. Our economy is based on militarism. =
The global environment is in danger of collapse. Two thirds of the =
world=92s population continues to live in absolute poverty. Iraqis, =
Aboriginal people, East Timoreese, Vancouver=92s Downtown Eastsiders and =
Third Worlders are today=92s chattel.=20

Over the past ten years the peace movement has been in decline.=20

Yet, behind the scenes, we=92ve have had some of our most successful =
advances. Nuclear weapons are essentially discredited. And how many of =
you know that the World Court just two years ago gave the opinion that =
nuclear weapons are generally illegal?

But the threat of nuclear warfare is greater today than it was in the =
1980s. Even the threat of limited nuclear war is a reality that we may =
face in the near future. And generally militarism is on the rise.

All of this leads me to my main point. The failure of peace activists in =
the 1980s was to build a populous anti-nuclear weapon movement. This was =
at the expense of building strong foundations of support for =
anti-militarism =96 foundations that would not crumble when the media =
got tired of us.
Earlier I said that we failed because we relied too much on the media. =
As a movement what we failed to understand was the blatant shallowness =
of our media.=20

I remember calling a journalist here in Vancouver, who I know is on the =
progressive side of the fence, to tell him about the next Walk for =
Peace. He immediately reacted with "OH can=92t you guys find something =
better to do, I=92m bored." That comment tells me more about the system =
than the person. Over 20,000 people came to the Walk for Peace that =
year, yet the Vancouver media portrayed it as a failure and the Canadian =
media ignored it. Why? Because they were bored.

Once the media got tired of the peace movement they dropped us like a =
hot potato. The issues didn=92t go away, in fact they are in many was =
worse.

Around the world we spent enormous energy organizing rallies and other =
media events throughout the 1980s. Millions and millions of people =
participated yet the impact of those events is at best minimal.

The Berlin wall fell because thousands of Germans wanted it to come down =
and they started ripping it down by hand, and they acted as if it were =
already gone even before it was. These people didn=92t go out and start =
tearing down the wall in order to get media attention. They did it =
because it was the right thing to do at the right time.

Apartheid came tumbling down because people worked for decades to get =
rid of it, and they began en masse to ignore or undermine its insidious =
rules. The people in power couldn=92t keep it together. And the media =
had little to do with it. In fact the media more often the not =
obstructed the anti-apartheid movement.

I strongly believe that each of our movements will have their great =
moments of success. But there are no quick fixes. It took decades to =
build unions, and decades to get rid of apartheid, the fight for equal =
rights for women and Blacks is centuries old and continues. For Third =
Worlders, colonialism has merely changed its face.=20

We have to work hard. But you=92ll end up spinning your wheels if you =
spend too much time trying to inform, appease and lobby the media and =
government. And you=92ll be (excuse the expression), you=92ll be pissing =
in the wind if you act out of frustration and play games for the media.

Getting media attention will not change the world.=20

Getting thousands or even millions of people actively supporting you =
will change the world, then the media will have no choice but to come =
out and watch.=20

And when we, the people, make our great leaps of progress the elite will =
rewrite history to show that it was actually they who wanted to improve =
the lives of women, blacks and workers, and it was they who wanted to =
end the Cold War and abolish apartheid.

We will all have to do the right thing (and that does not mean dancing =
for the media) and each of us will have to learn to recognize when the =
time is right.

As an example, I strongly believe that in the next five or ten years the =
peace movement is about to make some of its greatest advances. No, we =
likely will not end all war. But we=92ll take a few strides in that =
direction. The time is right, we=92ve been doing the work, people are on =
our side, and the right actions are already in our hands. Our position =
is now the common wisdom of the day. Thus, one small stride will be the =
abolition of nuclear weapons.

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<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Dear Friend,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>On July 26 I gave a speech =
to about 300=20
people here in Vancouver at the Community Development Institute’s=20
Conference. I was asked to reflect on the past ten years of work as a =
peace=20
activist. You may find my comments of interest, especially since I take =
a=20
critical look at our constant need and desire to act for the mainstream =
media.=20
(I’ve made a few editorial changes since it’s =
presentation).  I=20
hope you find it of interest.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Peter Coombes, =
President</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>End the Arms =
Race</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href=3D"mailto:[e-mail] ">[e-mail] =
</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href=3D"http://www.peacewire.org">www.peacewire.org</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000=20
size=3D2>----------------------------------------------------------------=
--------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Reflections on a decade of =

activism</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>As a peace activists =
I’ve spent=20
the past ten years reacting to international events. Over the past ten =
years the=20
fear of nuclear annihilation has receded and interest in the peace =
movement has=20
dwindled to a bare-bones group of workers around the world. In that=20
time:</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Gorbachev came to =
power, and from the=20
    start he began easing tensions between East and West. </FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Then there was the =
collapse of the=20
    Soviet Empire and ultimately an end to the Cold War.</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Then there was the Gulf =

    War</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Followed by Gulf War =
II</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>We had French nuclear=20
    testing.</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>And now India and =
Pakistan have=20
    entered the nuclear Weapons Club. </FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>As peace workers =
we’ve been in=20
full retreat since the late 1980s. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>The loss of interest in =
issues of=20
nuclear disarmament and militarism since then has meant for the movement =
and its=20
organizations:</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>The hemorrhaging of =
volunteers to the=20
    environmental movement and now to the anti-globalization=20
    movement.</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Decreased =
revenue.</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Disintegrating =
Coalitions</FONT></LI>
    <LI><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>And thousands of groups =
have=20
    literally disappeared while larger groups outside of peace groups =
have=20
    almost completely ignored peace and disarmament =
issues.</FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Yet, these experiences are =
not unique to=20
the peace movement. But likely we’ve felt it harder than anyone =
else has=20
-- mostly because we were so high in the mid-1980s we had a long way to =
fall.=20
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Just imagine, in =
Vancouver, we had a=20
rally in 1986 with over 100,000 people walking for nuclear disarmament. =
No one=20
has been able to do it since, no one has even tried. But, just two years =
later=20
in 1988, the number of peace walkers had already dropped and it =
continued to=20
drop until we decided to cancel it in 1993. But even then it was =
attracting=20
about 10,000 people. But we were into the numbers game with the media. =
They=20
considered the Walk a failure because it was only attracting 10,000 =
people. Yet,=20
no one else could consistently, year-after-year, attract the same=20
numbers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>The media has probably =
been our biggest=20
downfall. The peace movement made a fatal error -- we relied on the =
media to=20
cover the story, or at least to cover the issues. We expected media bias =
and=20
often we worked hard to overcome it, we even expected an ideological =
battles=20
with the media owners. But there was one thing we did not =
expect.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>But, before I continue, =
let me go back a=20
few steps. My impression is that the experience of the peace movement is =
not=20
unique to the 1900s. In the early part of this century we witnessed the =
struggle=20
of workers forming independent trade unions. Women fought for the right =
of=20
citizenship and the vote. In the 1950s the Black Civil rights movement =
came to=20
the forefront, then the anti-Vietnam war protests, by the 1970s the=20
women’s movement was in full stride again, then came the peace and =

environmental movements, and today we have the anti-globalization=20
movement.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>All of these movements =
have had their=20
ups-and downs, their successes and failures. And their successes =
didn’t=20
always coincide with their peaks of popular support. Trade unionism was =
on the=20
rise in the 1920s, thousands of workers were trying to form their own =
unions,=20
and many more were trying to unite to form the "One Big =
Union". Yet=20
activists in the 1920s faced some of the most fierce social battles of =
the=20
century – the military with tanks and machine guns were often =
called upon=20
to crush union activities. Private police here in Canada used =
intimidation and=20
violence to undermine their work. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>More than we can imagine, =
the battles of=20
unionists, feminists, civil rights workers and peace activists of the =
early=20
1900s to the 1950s set the stage for those of us who have been working =
for=20
progressive social change in the 1980s and 1990s.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>They achieved some of the =
major=20
victories – women and blacks gained the vote but more importantly =
they=20
were recognized as citizens. Workers succeeded in forming national and=20
international unions to improve the plight of millions. And there are =
many more=20
successes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>But unfortunately they =
also lost some=20
major battles and likely the single most important battle lost was over =
the=20
media. By the end of World War II, every independent progressive =
newspaper in=20
Canada was either burned, vandalized, shut-down or politically=20
discredited.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>In the 1950s anyone =
actively and=20
politically left of the Liberal Party of Canada was essentially purged =
from=20
every major institution in Canada and the US – they were purged =
from the=20
military, CBC, NFB, and from all government postings.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>But I didn’t come =
here to give any=20
of you a history lesson. Let’s face it, ten years is not a long=20
time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>We have to remember to put =
things in a=20
longer perspective if we truly want to understand where we’re at =
and where=20
we are going.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>This century has truly =
been the=20
"Best of times and the Worst of Times". </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>We’ve made great =
strides in=20
progressive social change – a coal miner in Glace Bay on Cape =
Breton=20
Island in 1901 was equal to the horses that were driven down under =
ground to=20
work their lives in the dark. (The horses were treated better then the =
men and=20
their families.) Women, Blacks and Coal Miners were chattel. Those =
attitudes=20
have dramatically changed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>But history hasn’t =
been moving=20
along in a straight progressive path. It’s also been an incredibly =

horrible century. We’ve built the largest military systems in =
history. Our=20
economy is based on militarism. The global environment is in danger of =
collapse.=20
Two thirds of the world’s population continues to live in absolute =

poverty. Iraqis, Aboriginal people, East Timoreese, Vancouver’s =
Downtown=20
Eastsiders and Third Worlders are today’s chattel. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Over the past ten years =
the peace=20
movement has been in decline. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Yet, behind the scenes, =
we’ve have=20
had some of our most successful advances. Nuclear weapons are =
essentially=20
discredited. And how many of you know that the World Court just two =
years ago=20
gave the opinion that nuclear weapons are generally =
illegal?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>But the threat of nuclear =
warfare is=20
greater today than it was in the 1980s. Even the threat of limited =
nuclear war=20
is a reality that we may face in the near future. And generally =
militarism is on=20
the rise.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>All of this leads me to my =
main point.=20
The failure of peace activists in the 1980s was to build a populous =
anti-nuclear=20
weapon movement. This was at the expense of building strong foundations =
of=20
support for anti-militarism – foundations that would not crumble =
when the=20
media got tired of us.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Earlier I said that we =
failed because we=20
relied too much on the media. As a movement what we failed to understand =
was the=20
blatant shallowness of our media. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>I remember calling a =
journalist here in=20
Vancouver, who I know is on the progressive side of the fence, to tell =
him about=20
the next Walk for Peace. He immediately reacted with "OH =
can’t you=20
guys find something better to do, I’m bored." That comment =
tells me=20
more about the system than the person. Over 20,000 people came to the =
Walk for=20
Peace that year, yet the Vancouver media portrayed it as a failure and =
the=20
Canadian media ignored it. Why? Because they were bored.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Once the media got tired =
of the peace=20
movement they dropped us like a hot potato. The issues didn’t go =
away, in=20
fact they are in many was worse.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Around the world we spent =
enormous=20
energy organizing rallies and other media events throughout the 1980s. =
Millions=20
and millions of people participated yet the impact of those events is at =
best=20
minimal.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>The Berlin wall fell =
because thousands=20
of Germans wanted it to come down and they started ripping it down by =
hand, and=20
they acted as if it were already gone even before it was. These people=20
didn’t go out and start tearing down the wall in order to get =
media=20
attention. They did it because it was the right thing to do at the right =

time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Apartheid came tumbling =
down because=20
people worked for decades to get rid of it, and they began en masse to =
ignore or=20
undermine its insidious rules. The people in power couldn’t keep =
it=20
together. And the media had little to do with it. In fact the media more =
often=20
the not obstructed the anti-apartheid movement.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>I strongly believe that =
each of our=20
movements will have their great moments of success. But there are no =
quick=20
fixes. It took decades to build unions, and decades to get rid of =
apartheid, the=20
fight for equal rights for women and Blacks is centuries old and =
continues. For=20
Third Worlders, colonialism has merely changed its face. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>We have to work hard. But =
you’ll=20
end up spinning your wheels if you spend too much time trying to inform, =
appease=20
and lobby the media and government. And you’ll be (excuse the =
expression),=20
you’ll be pissing in the wind if you act out of frustration and =
play games=20
for the media.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Getting media attention =
will not change=20
the world. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>Getting thousands or even =
millions of=20
people actively supporting you will change the world, then the media =
will have=20
no choice but to come out and watch. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>And when we, the people, =
make our great=20
leaps of progress the elite will rewrite history to show that it was =
actually=20
they who wanted to improve the lives of women, blacks and workers, and =
it was=20
they who wanted to end the Cold War and abolish apartheid.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>We will all have to do the =
right thing=20
(and that does not mean dancing for the media) and each of us will have =
to learn=20
to recognize when the time is right.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 face=3D"" size=3D3>As an example, I strongly =
believe that=20
in the next five or ten years the peace movement is about to make some =
of its=20
greatest advances. No, we likely will not end all war. But we’ll =
take a=20
few strides in that direction. The time is right, we’ve been doing =
the=20
work, people are on our side, and the right actions are already in our =
hands.=20
Our position is now the common wisdom of the day. Thus, one small stride =
will be=20
the abolition of nuclear weapons.</FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>

------=_NextPart_000_0164_01BDD149.8E9FD860--


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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) "Bagpipe" Subcritical Announcement
Date: 27 Aug 1998 10:32:24 -0700

Hello Friends,

Yesterday the Department of Energy conducted the first "signal dry run" for
the subcritical nuclear weapons test "Bagpipe" at the U-1a underground
center on the Nevada Test Site.

There is another "signal dry run" scheduled this afternoon at 2pm pacific
standard time. It seems that they will do daily dry runs. When they begin
to do daily "Mandatory" Dry runs, we will be getting closer to the
explosion date.

This morning some friends caught the end of a local TV news program doing a
story on the U-1a complex and they mentioned "2 weeks from now" Some people
believe they were talking about the test. We have a call into the TV
station and a call into D.O.E.

If it is two weeks from now that would put it on September 11. We are
certainly not ready to confirm this date now, but we will have a better
feeling for it next week. There is still some speculation that the test
could be delayed until toward the end of September.

Two weeks ago there was an interview with Derrick Scammel, DOE
spokesperson, and he said the DOE was prepared to do three tests before the
end of the year. We are not certain weather that means fiscal year or
calendar year.

We will start holding demonstrations and possibly daily vigils here in Las
Vegas beginning with a kick off demo at the Federal Building on Sept 8th.
and actions at the test site before the test. (Email us or call us at (702)
647-3095 for more information about these actions)

In the Bay Area: there will be a

Vigil at Livermore 4 PM to 6 PM the evening before the test.

and

Demonstrate at Bechtel HQ in San Francisco at NOON the day of the test.
Bechtel manages the test site for DOE, and is located at 50 Beale St. (near
the Embarcadero BART station).

For more info please call or email Marylia Kelly at Tri-Valley CAREs
<www.igc.org/tvc/>  [e-mail] [phone] - is our phone

If any one else is planning actions or public events around the subcritical
please let us know. If any body has any ideas for strategies to stop these
tests please let us know. Is there any way that we can file for an
injunction without taking a lot of time or resources of which we have
almost neither.

We will post an update on Monday and probably do bi-weekly updates from now
on.

In the meantime...

Please call the Department of Energy and the White House and your
Congressional representatives and demand:

    "DON'T BY HYPOCRITICAL! STOP THE SUBCRITICAL!"

    *The subcritical nuclear weapons test be canceled!
    *Stop all new and modified nuclear weapons development.
    *Close down the Nevada Test Site and all nuclear weapons development
facilities         except for programs based disarmament.
    *Begin immediate clean up and containment of the nuclear nightmare caused
by         the U.S. Nuclear Weapons program.

President Bill Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC 20001, (202)
456-1111
Secretary of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave, Washington DC, 20585 (202)
586-5230
State Senators and Representatives [phone] (Congressional switchboard)

Thank you. Peace Out! Reinard

PS. Thank you to all of the activists with For Mother Earth and TP2000 for
the incredibly inspiring actions and powerful work that you have been doing
in Europe over these past few months. I hope that we can carry some of your
energy into our own actions in the U.S.

***************************************************************
                   SHUNDAHAI NETWORK
          "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
              *Breaking the Nuclear Chain*

        5007 Elmhurst Ln., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304
ph(702)647-3095 Fax: [phone]  Email: [e-mail]
                    http://www.shundahai.org

     Shundahai Network is proud to be part of:
Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to
foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and
Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
****************************************************************

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) "Bagpipe": some background info
Date: 27 Aug 1998 11:11:14 -0700

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO EXPLODE NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTS ON SACRED
WESTERN SHOSHONE LAND!

NEVADA ACTIVISTS DECLARE, "DON'T BE HYPOCRITICAL - STOP THE SUBCRITICAL!"

NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS PLANNED.

(Call to U.S. activists and affinity groups: Come join us in Nevada for one
or more of the following actions in September and October. We need people
experienced in nonviolent direct action to participate in and help us with
these upcoming actions. For more information please contact Reinard at
[e-mail] or [phone]))

The Department of Energy has announced plans to conduct a subcritical
nuclear weapons test, code named "Bagpipe", and perhaps two more by the end
of September.

"Bag pipe" would explode plutonium by high powered conventional chemical
explosives, 980 feet underground at the LYNER (Low Yield Nuclear
Experiments Research, also called U-1a) facility at the Nevada Test Site
(NTS). This test will be conducted by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratories based in California.

These tests should really be called "hypocritical." They clearly violate
the spirit of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed in September
1996, by President Clinton. The CTBT commits the U.S. "not to carry out any
nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion..." DOE claims
these experiments are permissible because the CTBT does not define "nuclear
weapon" test. These tests make global adoption of the CTBT less likely by
encouraging other nations to copy the U.S. decision to continue testing and
update their nuclear arsenals.

These tests especially contradict the condemnation expressed  by the U.S.
government against India and Pakistan for conducting their own series of
nuclear weapons tests earlier this year.

The subcritical tests are part of a massive "Stockpile Stewardship and
Management" program, intended to maintain and expand U.S. nuclear weapons
capabilities well into the next century. During the next decade, taxpayers
will spend more than $40 billion for the program, an annual rate higher
than the Cold War average. Thus, it is fair to say these tests are intended
to signal to the rest of the world an unflagging U.S. commitment to nuclear
weapons as the ultimate "big stick."

Last year, in the U.S. 44 members of Congress, including key California
Representatives, urged President Clinton not to go ahead with the tests. At
the grassroots level, protesters gathered in  California, Nevada, Texas,
New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere around the country to
demand the cancelation of this testing program. Shundahai network is one of
39 groups from across the nation who have sued the DOE charging the agency
failed to conduct an adequate environmental analysis of the Stockpile
Stewardship and Management Plan, including the subcritical tests.

Join with Shundahai Network and many other outraged organizations on
September 8th and throughout the month of September to demand that these
tests are canceled and that the U.S. begin immediate negotiations with the
other nuclear powers on total nuclear abolition.

Action for Nuclear Abolition! a project of Shundahai Network, is a campaign
to provide quick and effective networking, information sharing, and
coordinated actions to raise public awareness and apply political pressure
to U.S. nuclear policies. Focusing on nuclear weapons testing and
development as well as nuclear waste production and dumping, our public
meetings, educational materials, nonviolent direct actions and media
development work will help build the momentum to shut down the Nevada Test
Site and halt the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump.

Our Spring 1999 Campaign will build on the momentum and creative energy of
our fall 1998 actions to stop the subcritical nuclear weapons tests at the
Nevada Test Site. During the fall we will hold nonviolent direct actions
and press conferences at an air force base, a Federal Court House,
Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Project Office, and the Nevada Test Site.

For more information please contact us at [phone]
Email: [e-mail] Web: http://www.shundahai.org

Please write or call the Department of Energy and the White House and your
Congressional representatives and demand:
    *The subcritical nuclear weapons test be canceled!
    *Stop all new and modified nuclear weapons development.
    *Close down the Nevada Test Site and all nuclear weapons development
facilities         except for programs based disarmament.
    *Begin immediate clean up and containment of the nuclear nightmare caused
by         the U.S. Nuclear Weapons program.

President Bill Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC 20001, (202)
456-1111
Secretary of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave, Washington DC, 20585 (202)
586-5230
State Senators and Representatives [phone] (Congressional switchboard)

Join the international movement to stop these U.S. tests and demand that
all the nuclear powers begin the process of immediate disarmament.

><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><><

Action for Nuclear Abolition! Fall 1999 campaign

Action for Nuclear Abolition! a project of Shundahai Network combines
education and nonviolent direct action. We are planning a renewed  local
campaign this fall to bring attention to and help solve pressing issues
concerning nuclear weapons and waste! The events planned will build on the
immense success of past Action for Nuclear Abolition! campaigns.

September 8:     Nonviolent Direct Action to Stop U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing
        Program. "Don't Be Hypocritical, Stop the Subcritical!"

A demonstration will be held at the Las Vegas Foley Federal Building
followed by a nonviolent direct action at an appropriate Federal
installation to protest and raise public pressure to cancel the scheduled
explosion of at least two more subcritical nuclear weapons tests at NTS in
the fall. Through our media development work and public outreach we will
put pressure on Nevada's Senators to join with other congressional
representatives demanding a cancellation of U.S. nuclear weapons programs.

September 29: Las Vegas Benefit Concert to raise money and awareness for
the Action for Nuclear Abolition! Campaign (stay tuned for more  details)

September 30:    "Nevada is Not A Wasteland Day!", Nonviolent Action and Press
Conference on Nuclear Waste issues

This action will mark the first Anniversary of the official "Nevada is Not
A Wasteland Day!" proclaimed by Governor Miller last year. We will hold a
press conference to report on the national grassroots efforts to stop
dangerous nuclear waste transportation and dumping and to announce our new
strategies to stop current low-level nuclear waste dumping at NTS and halt
the plans to dump high-level nuclear waste on Western Shoshone Land. This
Press conference will be held in conjunction with a nonviolent direct
action to protest the Department of Energy's current nuclear waste policies.

October 1:    Nellis Air Force Base Nuclear Weapons Citizen Inspection Team,
Nonviolent Direct Action and Press Conference

This action will be one of many Citizen Inspection Team actions occurring
simultaneously around the world. The Citizen Inspection Teams will make
their way into nuclear weapons installations to inspect nuclear weapons
first strike systems and present this documentation to the public. In Las
Vegas we will try to inspect Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas which
handles one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear bombs in the U.S. We will
hold a press conference to announce our findings.

All of these actions and events will be made even stronger by our team of
organizers and media spokespeople spreading the word through the internet,
newsletters, and networking with other organizations around the world.

***************************************************************
                   SHUNDAHAI NETWORK
          "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
              *Breaking the Nuclear Chain*

        5007 Elmhurst Ln., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304
ph(702)647-3095 Fax: [phone]  Email: [e-mail]
                    http://www.shundahai.org

     Shundahai Network is proud to be part of:
Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to
foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and
Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
****************************************************************

-
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: hcaldic <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Dancing for the media
Date: 27 Aug 1998 07:14:11 +1000

Peter Coombes wrote:
>
> Dear Friend,
>
> On July 26 I gave a speech to about 300 people here in Vancouver at
> the Community Development Institute’s Conference. I was asked to
> reflect on the past ten years of work as a peace activist. You may
> find my comments of interest, especially since I take a critical look
> at our constant need and desire to act for the mainstream media.
> (I’ve made a few editorial changes since it’s
> presentation).  I hope you find it of interest.
>
> Peter Coombes, President
> End the Arms Race
> [e-mail]
> www.peacewire.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Reflections on a decade of activism
>
> As a peace activists I’ve spent the past ten years reacting to
> international events. Over the past ten years the fear of nuclear
> annihilation has receded and interest in the peace movement has
> dwindled to a bare-bones group of workers around the world. In that
> time:
>
>    * Gorbachev came to power, and from the start he began easing
>      tensions between East and West.
>    * Then there was the collapse of the Soviet Empire and ultimately
>      an end to the Cold War.
>    * Then there was the Gulf War
>    * Followed by Gulf War II
>    * We had French nuclear testing.
>    * And now India and Pakistan have entered the nuclear Weapons Club.
>
> As peace workers we’ve been in full retreat since the late
> 1980s.
>
> The loss of interest in issues of nuclear disarmament and militarism
> since then has meant for the movement and its organizations:
>
>    * The hemorrhaging of volunteers to the environmental movement and
>      now to the anti-globalization movement.
>    * Decreased revenue.
>    * Disintegrating Coalitions
>    * And thousands of groups have literally disappeared while larger
>      groups outside of peace groups have almost completely ignored
>      peace and disarmament issues.
>
> Yet, these experiences are not unique to the peace movement. But
> likely we’ve felt it harder than anyone else has -- mostly
> because we were so high in the mid-1980s we had a long way to fall.
> Just imagine, in Vancouver, we had a rally in 1986 with over 100,000
> people walking for nuclear disarmament. No one has been able to do it
> since, no one has even tried. But, just two years later in 1988, the
> number of peace walkers had already dropped and it continued to drop
> until we decided to cancel it in 1993. But even then it was attracting
> about 10,000 people. But we were into the numbers game with the media.
> They considered the Walk a failure because it was only attracting
> 10,000 people. Yet, no one else could consistently, year-after-year,
> attract the same numbers.
>
> The media has probably been our biggest downfall. The peace movement
> made a fatal error -- we relied on the media to cover the story, or at
> least to cover the issues. We expected media bias and often we worked
> hard to overcome it, we even expected an ideological battles with the
> media owners. But there was one thing we did not expect.
>
> But, before I continue, let me go back a few steps. My impression is
> that the experience of the peace movement is not unique to the 1900s.
> In the early part of this century we witnessed the struggle of workers
> forming independent trade unions. Women fought for the right of
> citizenship and the vote. In the 1950s the Black Civil rights movement
> came to the forefront, then the anti-Vietnam war protests, by the
> 1970s the women’s movement was in full stride again, then came
> the peace and environmental movements, and today we have the
> anti-globalization movement.
>
> All of these movements have had their ups-and downs, their successes
> and failures. And their successes didn’t always coincide with
> their peaks of popular support. Trade unionism was on the rise in the
> 1920s, thousands of workers were trying to form their own unions, and
> many more were trying to unite to form the "One Big Union". Yet
> activists in the 1920s faced some of the most fierce social battles of
> the century – the military with tanks and machine guns were
> often called upon to crush union activities. Private police here in
> Canada used intimidation and violence to undermine their work.
>
> More than we can imagine, the battles of unionists, feminists, civil
> rights workers and peace activists of the early 1900s to the 1950s set
> the stage for those of us who have been working for progressive social
> change in the 1980s and 1990s.
>
> They achieved some of the major victories – women and blacks
> gained the vote but more importantly they were recognized as citizens.
> Workers succeeded in forming national and international unions to
> improve the plight of millions. And there are many more successes.
> But unfortunately they also lost some major battles and likely the
> single most important battle lost was over the media. By the end of
> World War II, every independent progressive newspaper in Canada was
> either burned, vandalized, shut-down or politically discredited.
>
> In the 1950s anyone actively and politically left of the Liberal Party
> of Canada was essentially purged from every major institution in
> Canada and the US – they were purged from the military, CBC,
> NFB, and from all government postings.
>
> But I didn’t come here to give any of you a history lesson.
> Let’s face it, ten years is not a long time.
> We have to remember to put things in a longer perspective if we truly
> want to understand where we’re at and where we are going.
>
> This century has truly been the "Best of times and the Worst of
> Times".
>
> We’ve made great strides in progressive social change – a
> coal miner in Glace Bay on Cape Breton Island in 1901 was equal to the
> horses that were driven down under ground to work their lives in the
> dark. (The horses were treated better then the men and their
> families.) Women, Blacks and Coal Miners were chattel. Those attitudes
> have dramatically changed.
>
> But history hasn’t been moving along in a straight progressive
> path. It’s also been an incredibly horrible century. We’ve
> built the largest military systems in history. Our economy is based on
> militarism. The global environment is in danger of collapse. Two
> thirds of the world’s population continues to live in absolute
> poverty. Iraqis, Aboriginal people, East Timoreese, Vancouver’s
> Downtown Eastsiders and Third Worlders are today’s chattel.
>
> Over the past ten years the peace movement has been in decline.
>
> Yet, behind the scenes, we’ve have had some of our most
> successful advances. Nuclear weapons are essentially discredited. And
> how many of you know that the World Court just two years ago gave the
> opinion that nuclear weapons are generally illegal?
>
> But the threat of nuclear warfare is greater today than it was in the
> 1980s. Even the threat of limited nuclear war is a reality that we may
> face in the near future. And generally militarism is on the rise.
>
> All of this leads me to my main point. The failure of peace activists
> in the 1980s was to build a populous anti-nuclear weapon movement.
> This was at the expense of building strong foundations of support for
> anti-militarism – foundations that would not crumble when the
> media got tired of us.
> Earlier I said that we failed because we relied too much on the media.
> As a movement what we failed to understand was the blatant shallowness
> of our media.
>
> I remember calling a journalist here in Vancouver, who I know is on
> the progressive side of the fence, to tell him about the next Walk for
> Peace. He immediately reacted with "OH can’t you guys find
> something better to do, I’m bored." That comment tells me more
> about the system than the person. Over 20,000 people came to the Walk
> for Peace that year, yet the Vancouver media portrayed it as a failure
> and the Canadian media ignored it. Why? Because they were bored.
>
> Once the media got tired of the peace movement they dropped us like a
> hot potato. The issues didn’t go away, in fact they are in many
> was worse.
>
> Around the world we spent enormous energy organizing rallies and other
> media events throughout the 1980s. Millions and millions of people
> participated yet the impact of those events is at best minimal.
>
> The Berlin wall fell because thousands of Germans wanted it to come
> down and they started ripping it down by hand, and they acted as if it
> were already gone even before it was. These people didn’t go out
> and start tearing down the wall in order to get media attention. They
> did it because it was the right thing to do at the right time.
>
> Apartheid came tumbling down because people worked for decades to get
> rid of it, and they began en masse to ignore or undermine its
> insidious rules. The people in power couldn’t keep it together.
> And the media had little to do with it. In fact the media more often
> the not obstructed the anti-apartheid movement.
>
> I strongly believe that each of our movements will have their great
> moments of success. But there are no quick fixes. It took decades to
> build unions, and decades to get rid of apartheid, the fight for equal
> rights for women and Blacks is centuries old and continues. For Third
> Worlders, colonialism has merely changed its face.
>
> We have to work hard. But you’ll end up spinning your wheels if
> you spend too much time trying to inform, appease and lobby the media
> and government. And you’ll be (excuse the expression),
> you’ll be pissing in the wind if you act out of frustration and
> play games for the media.
>
> Getting media attention will not change the world.
>
> Getting thousands or even millions of people actively supporting you
> will change the world, then the media will have no choice but to come
> out and watch.
>
> And when we, the people, make our great leaps of progress the elite
> will rewrite history to show that it was actually they who wanted to
> improve the lives of women, blacks and workers, and it was they who
> wanted to end the Cold War and abolish apartheid.
>
> We will all have to do the right thing (and that does not mean dancing
> for the media) and each of us will have to learn to recognize when the
> time is right.
>
> As an example, I strongly believe that in the next five or ten years
> the peace movement is about to make some of its greatest advances. No,
> we likely will not end all war. But we’ll take a few strides in
> that direction. The time is right, we’ve been doing the work,
> people are on our side, and the right actions are already in our
> hands. Our position is now the common wisdom of the day. Thus, one
> small stride will be the abolition of nuclear weapons.

    Dear Peter I understand your pessimism but there is now a rising and
very active antinuclear movement globally. It revolved around the
fulcrum of the "stockpile stewardship program" which, to my horror, I
found recently was a new vamped up Manhattan 11 program of the same
magnitude to design and build new nuclear weapons, whch of course
totally violates the NPT and CTB. Get the documents on this from Alice
Slater at Grace. Movements only occur in the wake of good solid
education which arouses people who do things which attract the media. We
can never rely upon the media to lead our movements. Peter, if an
appropriate time can be found, I would be willing to come to vancouver
and jazz up the crowds again, Sincerely Helen Caldicott



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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "BobKinsey" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) re Bagpipe alert-- calling the dept of energy
Date: 28 Aug 1998 11:27:52 -0600

Having just spent a long time being shunted around DOE to complain about
the bagpipe test I learned that the best number is the Press Office at 1
202 586 5806.  The Secretary's office is 1 202 586 6210.  The number at the
bottom of this e-mail is way off base.
Ask for a response and assurance from the press office that Richardson will
hear about your protest of Bagpipe.

Bob Kinsey

----------
> From: Shundahai Network <[e-mail]>
> To: [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail];
[e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail]
> Subject: (abolition-usa) "Bagpipe" Subcritical Announcement
> Date: Thursday, August 27, 1998 11:32 AM
>
> Hello Friends,
>
> Yesterday the Department of Energy conducted the first "signal dry run"
for
> the subcritical nuclear weapons test "Bagpipe" at the U-1a underground
> center on the Nevada Test Site.
>
> There is another "signal dry run" scheduled this afternoon at 2pm pacific
> standard time. It seems that they will do daily dry runs. When they begin
> to do daily "Mandatory" Dry runs, we will be getting closer to the
> explosion date.
>
> This morning some friends caught the end of a local TV news program doing
a
> story on the U-1a complex and they mentioned "2 weeks from now" Some
people
> believe they were talking about the test. We have a call into the TV
> station and a call into D.O.E.
>
> If it is two weeks from now that would put it on September 11. We are
> certainly not ready to confirm this date now, but we will have a better
> feeling for it next week. There is still some speculation that the test
> could be delayed until toward the end of September.
>
> Two weeks ago there was an interview with Derrick Scammel, DOE
> spokesperson, and he said the DOE was prepared to do three tests before
the
> end of the year. We are not certain weather that means fiscal year or
> calendar year.
>
> We will start holding demonstrations and possibly daily vigils here in
Las
> Vegas beginning with a kick off demo at the Federal Building on Sept 8th.
> and actions at the test site before the test. (Email us or call us at
(702)
> 647-3095 for more information about these actions)
>
> In the Bay Area: there will be a
>
> Vigil at Livermore 4 PM to 6 PM the evening before the test.
>
> and
>
> Demonstrate at Bechtel HQ in San Francisco at NOON the day of the test.
> Bechtel manages the test site for DOE, and is located at 50 Beale St.
(near
> the Embarcadero BART station).
>
> For more info please call or email Marylia Kelly at Tri-Valley CAREs
> <www.igc.org/tvc/>  [e-mail] [phone] - is our phone
>
> If any one else is planning actions or public events around the
subcritical
> please let us know. If any body has any ideas for strategies to stop
these
> tests please let us know. Is there any way that we can file for an
> injunction without taking a lot of time or resources of which we have
> almost neither.
>
> We will post an update on Monday and probably do bi-weekly updates from
now
> on.
>
> In the meantime...
>
> Please call the Department of Energy and the White House and your
> Congressional representatives and demand:
>
>     "DON'T BY HYPOCRITICAL! STOP THE SUBCRITICAL!"
>
>     *The subcritical nuclear weapons test be canceled!
>     *Stop all new and modified nuclear weapons development.
>     *Close down the Nevada Test Site and all nuclear weapons development
> facilities         except for programs based disarmament.
>     *Begin immediate clean up and containment of the nuclear nightmare
caused
> by         the U.S. Nuclear Weapons program.
>
> President Bill Clinton, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC 20001, (202)
> 456-1111
> Secretary of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave, Washington DC, 20585 (202)
> 586-5230
> State Senators and Representatives [phone] (Congressional
switchboard)
>
> Thank you. Peace Out! Reinard
>
> PS. Thank you to all of the activists with For Mother Earth and TP2000
for
> the incredibly inspiring actions and powerful work that you have been
doing
> in Europe over these past few months. I hope that we can carry some of
your
> energy into our own actions in the U.S.
>
> ***************************************************************
>                    SHUNDAHAI NETWORK
>           "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
>               *Breaking the Nuclear Chain*
>
>         5007 Elmhurst Ln., Las Vegas, NV 89108-1304
> ph(702)647-3095 Fax: [phone]  Email: [e-mail]
>                     http://www.shundahai.org
>
>      Shundahai Network is proud to be part of:
> Healing Global Wounds Alliance, a multi-cultural alliance to
> foster sustainable living and break the nuclear chain; and
> Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
> ****************************************************************
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to
"[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Karina Wood <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Turner op-ed from Boston Globe
Date: 31 Aug 1998 12:44:15 -0700 (PDT)

Hi folks,

Did you see this great op-ed from Stansfield Turner in yesterday's Boston
Globe? Our abolitionist colleagues Alistair Millar of the Fourth Freedom
Forum and Steve Kent of Kent Communications helped put it together.

Karina Wood

*******
>This story ran on page A13 of the Boston Globe on 08/31/98.=20
>                  =A9 Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.=20
>
>Reversing nuclear growth=20
>
>                  By Stansfield Turner, 08/31/98=20
>
>Tomorrow President Clinton is expected to meet with embattled Russian
>President Boris Yeltsin. Global nuclear security will be a topic of
>discussion between the two leaders at their first meeting since the
>recent weapons tests by India and Pakistan.=20
>
>The United States and Russia have by far the largest stocks of nuclear
>weapons in the world. Although Russia's economic woes have serious
>implications for the United States and the world, the new nuclear
>landscape in the wake of the South Asian tests is still the single most
>urgent fact of life in our bilateral relationship today. This situation
>demands decisive coping measures.=20
>
>Traditional treaty negotiations are necessary but not sufficient to
>today's demand. Even if START II is ratified and carried out, the United
>States will still have 10,000 nuclear warheads at the end of 2007. If
>this is the best nuclear arms control our treaty negotiations can offer,
>it sets an irresponsible example for the rest of the world.=20
>
>How can the United States or Russia criticize India and Pakistan, let
>alone take punitive action against emergent nuclear programs, while
>maintaining unnecessarily huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons?
>Traditional efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons are
>backfiring, because the ``do as we say, but not as we do'' approach to
>this problem has failed and will continue to fail.=20
>
>The threat the new wave of proliferation poses on Russia's southern
>flank, and new tensions with Pakistan over the US bombing of
>Afghanistan, have added unpredictable factors into the mix. The need to
>cool the nuclear politics of the region is urgent. Meanwhile, risk of
>proliferation of nuclear weapons to other breakout states such as Iraq,
>Iran, and North Korea grows daily, and the power of established nuclear
>states to prevent it steadily weakens.=20
>
>It is necessary for the United States today not just to maintain the
>momentum of the nuclear arms control treaty process but to accelerate
>it. I have written a letter to President Clinton proposing a viable way
>to begin: a program of "strategic escrow'' to disconnect warheads from
>missiles. Through his presidential authority alone, President Clinton
>has the power to relocate unilaterally at least 1,000 nuclear warheads
>from their missiles and place them in storage at some remote distance
>perhaps a minimum of 200 miles.=20
>
>President Bush established the precedent for this sort of unilateral
>action by a US president in 1991 when he withdrew tactical nuclear
>weapons from their deployed positions. If President Clinton uses this
>precedent to alter the deployment of 1,000 nuclear missiles, we could
>then invite the Russians to send observers who would have authority only
>to count the number of warheads in storage. We would have full control
>and could return the warheads to their missiles at any time. Thus, we
>would not have fewer nuclear weapons than before; 1,000 of them would
>merely be in a state of lower readiness.=20
>
>Our hope would be that the Russians would reciprocate. An initiative
>from their former Cold War adversary would certainly give them an
>incentive to do so. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, their
>nuclear arsenal is inexorably dwindling anway, due to lack of
>maintenance and replacement. Strategic escrow would give them much
>needed cost advantages over other methods of stockpile management and
>arms reduction.=20
>
>If they embraced it, we would realistically expect to embark on a series
>of similar actions and responses that could reduce the number of alerted
>nuclear warheads to less than 1,000 in just a few years. If they did
>not, we would have lost nothing, but gained some credibility among
>nations for having made an attempt they would recognize as meaningful.=20
>
>In the event that we did reach a level of 1,000 warheads outside escrow,
>we could then credibly encourage the other nuclear powers to join in the
>process. This would no longer be a matter of leaving us with 10,000
>missiles in the best case, but of charting a practical course to a world
>in which there were few, if any, nuclear weapons immediately ready for
>use. A successful program of strategic escrow would also markedly reduce
>the risk of a nuclear exchange touched off by accidents or mistakes.=20
>
>Even more important, it would point the world in a new direction with
>respect to nuclear weapons. Those having them would be telling the world
>that they do not really need to deploy them, and, therefore, no one else
>need acquire them.=20
>
>The Moscow summit represents a historic opportunity that the Clinton
>administration should not miss. This is the first time since the end of
>the Cold War and the beginning of our cooperative relationship with
>Russia that the two nuclear superpowers have actually confronted the
>long-dreaded outbreak of proliferation.=20
>
>As a result, we have entered an unprecedented moment in which we have
>both the immediate incentive as well as the working relationship with
>Russia necessary to take a practical step toward halting and reversing
>the renewed growth of nuclear danger. The president should not fail to
>seize this opportunity to leave a legacy for all humankind.=20
>
>Stansfield Turner is a retired Navy admiral and the former director of
>the Central Intelligence Agency.=20
>
>                 =20
>                 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>
Karina Wood
U.S. Outreach Coordinator,=20
Hague Appeal for Peace=20
43 Nisbet St, 3rd Fl.
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Join us at the global people's conference for peace & justice,=20
The Hague, May 11-15 1999!


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 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
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