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From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #18 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Tuesday, September 22 1998 Volume 01 : Number 018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 09:04:13 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Compare headlines 9/15/98 Compare these headlines and it makes you wonder how many Indonesian (or other) children you could feed for $4.4 million: Millions Face Famine in Indonesia vs. Starr: Lewinsky Probe Cost $4.4M et in dc prop1@prop1.org 9/15/98 New York Times AP-Online http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/indexNews.html - Millions Face Famine in Indonesia JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Millions of Indonesians face an impending famine due to dire food shortages, a newspaper has reported. Many families can only afford a single daily meal, and things could get worse before the rice harvest in January, Food Minister A.M. Saefuddin was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post on Monday. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indonesia-Famine-Feared.html Starr: Lewinsky Probe Cost $4.4M WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's denial in January of a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky cost more than the personal embarrassment of Kenneth Starr's report. Taxpayers will foot a bill of at least $4.4 million, The Associated Press has learned. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Starr-Lewinsky-Costs.html _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 09:14:07 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Radioactive groundwater skyrocketing in Denver 9/16/98 http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0916c.htm Denver Post Online, September 16, 1998 EPA cleanup of Shattuck not working, city claims By Mark Eddy Denver Post Environment Writer Sept. 16 - Levels of radioactivity in groundwater flowing from beneath the Shattuck Superfund site have skyrocketed in the last four years, tests conducted by the city of Denver show. "Clearly, the EPA remedy at the Shattuck site is not working,'' said Theresa Donahue, manager of Denver's Department of Environmental Health. Ten wells were tested on the Overland Golf Course, just west of the radioactive waste dump at 1805 S. Bannock. Two of the worst wells are within a half-mile of the South Platte River and "significantly'' violate standards set by the EPA, Donahue said. Standards exceeded Uranium concentrations at one well have increased by 75 times since 1994 and all 10 had contamination levels that exceeded EPA's cleanup standards for Shattuck. EPA, which along with the state health department ordered in 1992 that 50,000 cubic yards of soil - enough to cover a football field 30 feet deep - contaminated with radioactive uranium and radium and heavy metals be buried at the site at 1805 S. Bannock St., confirmed that its tests also showed increases in radioactivity. But, that doesn't mean the controversial cleanup, which should be completed by the end of the month, isn't working, said Jim Hanley, EPA's project manager for Shattuck. "I don't think that anyone expected that the remedy would be completely effective on Day One. I expect that most people thought that the contamination migration away from the waste would attenuate over time and it would take a number of years before it actually goes down,'' Hanley said. The city has jumped the gun with its claims that the cleanup is a failure, he said. "I'm sort of surprised at the city's interpretation here. I don't think there's any requirement for us to be in (compliance) immediately.'' Experts at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment haven't examined the data yet, but they are trying to figure out "if we have an issue out there,'' said Howard Roitman, director of the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division. "We're looking seriously at the issue. But right now based just on what Denver's put out, we can't give an assessment on it - but we are working on it,'' he said. The soil was contaminated during operations at the 6-acre site from the 1920s through the 1980s when several companies processed uranium, radium and vanadium. The Shattuck Chemical Co. was the last to operate at the site and is responsible for the cleanup. The city as well as several neighborhood groups fought the EPA's decision to mix the contaminated soil with flyash and entomb it in a monolith on the site - which is 4 miles from Downtown Denver, a block from houses and just two blocks from the busy South Broadway business district. The city and neighbors wanted it moved to a remote, federally licensed facility in Utah and the EPA originally agreed, but officials at the agency reversed their decision and ordered the soil buried on-site. Soil from nine other similar sites in Denver was all moved to Utah. The test results released Tuesday are a followup to those conducted earlier this summer when the city discovered that a storm sewer pipe draining into the South Platte River was contaminated with heavy metals, just as it was before the Shattuck site was cleaned up. EPA hasn't monitored groundwater, which isn't used for drinking water, or outflow from the storm sewer pipe since 1994 and was unaware of the contamination until the city sent the agency initial findings this summer, the agency confirmed. After the city's tests showed heavy metals are still leaking into the storm sewer, Denver and the EPA took samples and tested for heavy metals and radioactivity in both the storm sewer and monitoring wells on the golf course. Although heavy metals are leaking into the river, radioactivity in the storm pipe is within federal standards, the tests show. The city hopes to force the EPA into a complete evaluation of possible groundwater contamination and to ultimately move the contaminated soil out of Denver. The latest tests show again that the EPA botched the cleanup, Donahue said. own tests, Hanley said. _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 11:38:00 -0400 From: War Resisters League <wrl@igc.apc.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Organizing for A Day Without the Pentagon The recently updated website for "A Day Without the Pentagon" includes a list of local organizing committees for the October 19 march and action at the Pentagon--the heart of US militarism. Local committeees are forming across the country. Find out now about efforts in your area to get on the bus and join this historic action. If you are part of a local committee that is not listed, please reply to this e-mail with contact information. We'll add you to future updates. The website can be accessed at www.nonviolence.org/wrl/nopentagon.htm See you in October, Chris Ney Disarmament Coordinator ********** War Resisters League 339 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10012 212-228-0450 212-228-6193 (fax) 1-800-975-9688 (YouthPeace and A Day Without the Pentagon) wrl@igc.apc.org web address: http://www.nonviolence.org/wrl - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 16:06:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Timothy Bruening <tsbrueni@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Compare headlines 9/15/98 At 09:04 AM 9/17/98 -0400, Peace Through Reason wrote: >Compare these headlines and it makes you wonder how many Indonesian (or >other) children you could feed for $4.4 million: > > Millions Face Famine in Indonesia > vs. > Starr: Lewinsky Probe Cost $4.4M > >et in dc >prop1@prop1.org > >9/15/98 New York Times AP-Online >http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/indexNews.html - > > Millions Face Famine in Indonesia > JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Millions of Indonesians face an > impending famine due to dire food shortages, a newspaper > has reported. Many families can only afford a single daily > meal, and things could get worse before the rice harvest in > January, Food Minister A.M. Saefuddin was quoted as > saying in The Jakarta Post on Monday. > http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indonesia-Famine-Feared.html > > Starr: Lewinsky Probe Cost $4.4M > WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's denial in January of a > sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky cost more than > the personal embarrassment of Kenneth Starr's report. > Taxpayers will foot a bill of at least $4.4 million, The > Associated Press has learned. > http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Starr-Lewinsky-Costs.html Should we fine Clinton $4.4 million and send the money to Indonesia? - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 08:05:54 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: PA Nuclear Plant Must Pay $36.5 million to victims http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-09/18/063l-091898-idx.html Nuclear Plant Owners Ordered to Pay Pa. Cancer Victims Associated Press Friday, September 18, 1998; Page A11 Washington Post PITTSBURGH, Sept. 18=97A federal jury ordered the former owners of a nuclear processing plant today to pay at least $36.5 million in damages for a rash of cancer cases in a small town. One owner, Atlantic Richfield Co., was found negligent on nine out of 10 counts related to the now-closed Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., which made fuel for nuclear submarines in Apollo, 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The other, Babcock & Wilcox Co., was found negligent on all 10 counts it faced. The jury, which deliberated for nine days before reaching its verdict, levied $36.5 million in actual damages against the companies. Punitive damages will be determined next week. "Yes!" yelled Patricia Ameno, an Apollo resident who was among the first to suggest a link between the plant and the cancers that struck her and her neighbors. The case was brought by nearly 100 residents of the river town of 1,900 people. They claimed three decades of radioactive emissions caused an unusually high incidence of cancer. In Apollo, health officials said, 351 out of 1,895 people had some type of cancer, including 10 cases of leukemia. Just a few miles away in Bell Township, 28 out of 2,353 people had some type of cancer, including one case of leukemia. The month-long federal trial dealt with eight of the cases. The damages will be divided among seven cancer patients, the parents of a woman who died from cancer and three spouses of cancer patients. The other plaintiffs, including Ameno, have filed separate lawsuits that are still pending. Atlantic Richfield and Babcock & Wilcox are the former owners of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. plant, which processed nuclear fuel from 1957 to 1986 and was torn down in the early 1990s. It once supplied enriched uranium to power Navy missile-launching submarines. Alfred Wilcox, a lawyer for the companies, had argued that the plaintiffs failed to prove the plant exceeded allowable releases of radiation, show any increased likelihood of cancer after purported releases or provide any estimates of radiation doses that residents received. "The case isn't over yet. There's still more to the trial," said Wilcox, who is not related to the owners of Babcock & Wilcox.=20 _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 12:08:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Gerson <afsccamb@igc.apc.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Hotel Reservation for October Conference 9/18 Dear Friends, I phoned and found that the Travelodge is full. Could you reserve a single room for me for the night of October 9 at the Ramada Congress Hotel? Thanks. Joseph Gerson American Friends Service Committee At 04:24 PM 9/10/98 -0700, ilpeace@igc.apc.org wrote: >>Dear Friends: > >Here are some travel and lodging tips for folks coming to Chicago for the >October 9 organizing meeting on the new national abolition campaign and the >October 10 conference on abolition featuring author Jonathan Schell and >former Senator Alan Cranston entitled "Bottling the Genie: Building the >Movement to Abolish Nuclear Weapons": >> >>If you are flying into Chicago, both O'Hare and Midway airports are linked >by public transit to downtown Chicago, where our meetings will be held. If >you take the train, Union Station is about a $5 taxi ride from the DePaul >Center, our meeting site for both days. If you drive, there are parking lots >within a few blocks of the DePaul Center. Parking lots and transit stops >are marked on the map in the middle panel of the "Bottling the Genie" >October 10 conference brochure. (If you didn't get a brochure but want one, >call us at 312/939-3316.) >> >>Lodging: Hotel space in downtown Chicago for October 8,9,and 10 is tight >because the Chicago Marathon is Sunday the 11th and there is a big machine >industry convention that weekend. So you should make your hotel >reservations ASAP. Here are some suggestions: >> >>Best bet: Travelodge: 312/427-8000 or 800/578-7878, 65 East Harrison St., >between Michigan and Wabash Avenues, only 4 blocks from the DePaul Center. >Single rooms $79 per night, doubles $89. >> >>Ramada Congress Hotel: 312/427-3800, 520 S. Michigan Ave., 3 blocks from >our meeting site. We're negotiating with them for a group rate, which will >probably be between $129 and $165/night for double rooms. >> >International Conference Center, 4750 N. Sheridan Rd. This is a no-frills >but nice conference facility for non-profits that has cheap dormitory-type >rooms for between $14 and $24 per night -- can't be beat!! It's two blocks >from the elevated ("el") transit stop, and it's about a (very scenic) 25 >minute train ride to downtown. The folks there are awfully nice, but they >aren't a hotel per se, so they'd like us to take reservations. If you'd >like to stay here, and we highly recommend it, call our conference >coordinator Debby Reelitz-Bell at 847/266-1525 or Kevin Martin at the >Iillinois Peace Action office: 312/939-3316. >> >International House at the University of Chicago: 773/753-2270, 1414 E. 59th >St.-- Single, dormitory-style rooms are $36 per night. This is about a >25-minute bus or train ride from our downtown meeting site. Again, no >frills but nice, highly recommended for those on a budget. > >Bed & Breakfast Chicago: 773/248-0005: a clearinghouse for B & B's, they >have rooms close to downtown >>from $135 to $185 per night (2 or 3 people per room) >>> >>If you absolutely cannot afford these reasonably priced (heck, some are >downright cheap!) accommodations, call Debby Reelitz-Bell at 847/266-1525 or >Kevin Martin at 312/939-3316 and we will arrange a home stay for you with an >Illinois Peace Action member. > >In Peace, > >Kevin Martin >Executive Director >Illinois Peace Action >Check out our website at http://www.webcom.com/ipa > > > > >- > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > 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 "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 15:16:23 EDT From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Impeaching Clinton for the Stockpile Stewardship Program Any effort by peace groups to interpose impeachment of Clinton on "proper grounds" (plenty exist) in the middle of the current scandal will be a mistake. We will be seen either as irrelevent to the main issue, or as foolishly siding with the GOP in what is, in fact, a shocking attack on the right of privacy. I do not care about Clinton. Let him twist in the wind of his own follies. I do care that we focus on the immediate issue - which is the Starr report on the sudden emergence of the House of Representatives as the largest publisher of pornography in the nation. However I don't think this is really an issue for the abolition list. I do worry that Clinton may try something military (or, if he resigns, that Al Gore will establish his own credentials by a military attack somewhere). But as for impeaching Clinton on the Stockpile issue, that is going to waste our energy and confuse issues. Peace, David McReynolds In a message dated 9/17/98 6:28:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, tsbrueni@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us writes: << At 07:49 PM 9/14/98 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Timothy, > >You might add to your list of reasons to impeach Clinton the so-called >"subcritical nuclear tests," and the "burrowing" nuclear bombs, and failure >to act on depleted uranium claims by Gulf War veterans, and selling nuclear >power plants to China, and selling F-14 fighter planes throughout Latin >America and Africa last year, and being number one arms promoter in the >world, for starters. Then there's bombing Sudan and Afghanistan. How do I get all that into letter to the editor form? Anyone have a sample "Impeach President Clinton" letter? - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 15:41:49 -0700 (PDT) From: nukeresister@igc.org (Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa) Subject: (abolition-usa) CIT for biological weapons in Utah 10/3 BIOILOGICAL WEAPONS IN UTAH? Civilian Inspection Team to Search Dugway Proving Ground for Weapons of Mass Destruction. An Open letter to the Commander of Dugway Proving Ground: August 27, 1998 We are citizens concerned about weapons of mass destruction being developed or stored at Dugway. We intend to arrive at your facility sometime on October 3, 1998, to inspect your base for evidence of the development and storage of weapons of mass destruction. The United States government has expressed great concern about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and demanded that Iraqi military facilities be open to international inspection. The United States government has promoted the imposition of sanctions on Iraq which have taken a heavy toll on the Iraqi people, especially the young, the ill, and the elderly. Punishing the Iraqi people is not an effective way to banish weapons of mass destruction. If the U.S. government is committed to riding the world of weapons of mass destruction, the best way would be leadership by example. Let us begin by opening our military facilities where weapons of mass destruction are developed or stored. We look forward to meeting you as we conduct our civilian inspection of the Dugway Proving Ground. Sincerely, The Committee for Peace in the Middle East. Send-off rally for Civilian Inspection Team, 10 a.m. Saturday, October 3, rally at the Federal Building in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nonviolence training: Sunday, September 27th, 1-5 p.m., First Unitarian Church, 569 South 13th East. More info: The Committee for Peace in the Middle East, 801-486-2558 posted by: _____________________________________ the Nuclear Resister "a chronicle of hope" P.O. Box 43383 Tucson AZ 85733 - information about and support for imprisoned anti-nuclear and anti-war activists - Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa, editors (520)323-8697 US$15/year/US$20 Canada/US$25 overseas - selections from current issue - updated prisoner addresses - & more can be read at: http://www.nonviolence.org/nukeresister * FREE SAMPLE ISSUE ON REQUEST * (please supply a postal address for samples) _____________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 19:51:13 EDT From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Good luck to October 9, 10 This is a quick email response to the good letter from the Organizing Committee for october 9th and l0th. War Resisters League will not, so far as I know, be able to get a key person to the Chicago meeting - only because of our work on the October 19th Pentagon Action. Certainly we hope a number of those meeting in Chicago will be able to join us in Washington on that later date. Meanwhile the small bits of good news that I can report is that the Peace Diary (the annual calendar that is printed in London by Housman's and sold around the world) has sort of "two forwards", one on the Hague Appeal, and one, for which I'd done the draft, on Abolition 2000. (If anyone on this list wants information on how to order the Peace Diary, get off an email to: worldpeace@gn.apc.org - I didn't start this post as a plug for the Peace Diary, but in fact while I'm at it, it has the best list of peace groups in every country of any source I'm aware of. So anyone with a Peace Diary can start their own personal contacts with peace groups in almost any country in the world). I'm sending a cc of this to the WRL list in case someone in Chicago wants to check with Chris Ney at the WRL office in NYC about representing us. Meanwhile - every possible success, and my own regrets that I can't be there. David McReynolds - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 21:37:35 -0400 From: Peter Weiss <petweiss@igc.org> Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Re: Impeaching Clinton for the Stockpile Stewardship Program Far be it from me to pull rank here. But as a constitutional and international lawyer who pushed for the impeachment of Nixon over the illegal bombing of Cambodia I 1) agree that all the things mentioned are illegal and 2) agree with David that it would be a mistake to try to impeach Clinton on any of those grounds. Impeachable grounds are whatever Congress decides they are and there isn't a snowball's chance in hell of getting this Congress to take its minds off the salacious stuff and focus on the real illegalities. Peter Weiss DavidMcR@aol.com wrote: > > Any effort by peace groups to interpose impeachment of Clinton on "proper > grounds" (plenty exist) in the middle of the current scandal will be a > mistake. We will be seen either as irrelevent to the main issue, or as > foolishly siding with the GOP in what is, in fact, a shocking attack on the > right of privacy. > > I do not care about Clinton. Let him twist in the wind of his own follies. I > do care that we focus on the immediate issue - which is the Starr report on > the sudden emergence of the House of Representatives as the largest publisher > of pornography in the nation. > > However I don't think this is really an issue for the abolition list. I do > worry that Clinton may try something military (or, if he resigns, that Al Gore > will establish his own credentials by a military attack somewhere). > > But as for impeaching Clinton on the Stockpile issue, that is going to waste > our energy and confuse issues. > > Peace, > David McReynolds > > In a message dated 9/17/98 6:28:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > tsbrueni@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us writes: > > << At 07:49 PM 9/14/98 -0400, you wrote: > >Dear Timothy, > > > >You might add to your list of reasons to impeach Clinton the so-called > >"subcritical nuclear tests," and the "burrowing" nuclear bombs, and failure > >to act on depleted uranium claims by Gulf War veterans, and selling nuclear > >power plants to China, and selling F-14 fighter planes throughout Latin > >America and Africa last year, and being number one arms promoter in the > >world, for starters. Then there's bombing Sudan and Afghanistan. > > How do I get all that into letter to the editor form? Anyone have a sample > "Impeach President Clinton" letter? > > > > > - > To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > 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 "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 07:07:53 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Mexicans furious about Nuclear Dump at Sierra Blanca 9/19/98 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-09/19/075l-091998-idx.html Mexico Factions Unite in Fury at Texas Dump Planned Site Near Border Called 'Racism' By Molly Moore Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, September 19, 1998; Page A18=20 GUADALUPE BRAVOS, Mexico=97This bantam border town has a message for what it sees as the overbearing bullies next door: "Clinton and Bush -- Take away your nuclear garbage," screams the banner in front of city hall on Main Street. The town's hostility is aimed 50 flat desert miles to the southeast, where Texas plans to chew huge craters in the rocky earth to create a nuclear waste dump for radioactive refuse from Texas, Maine and Vermont. But what state officials in Austin and the Congress in Washington regard as a remote patch of scrubland -- a perfect spot for an unpopular dump -- is considered by critics as too close to home and water supplies for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who populate the towns and cities south of the border. "For us it's a question of life and death," said Israel Trejo Gamez, mayor of this town of 9,600 people. "We're worried for our future generations of children. If it's not dangerous, like the U.S. government says, why not put it in New York?" Mexicans, as well as political and environmental opponents in the United States, maintain they have the answer to that question. "It's obvious environmental racism," said Clara Torres Armendariz, a state legislator in the sprawling Mexican state of Chihuahua, which adjoins Texas. "Why choose this place? The American side is 65 percent Hispanic and not politically or economically important for the United States. On the other side is Mexico." Seldom has one issue so galvanized Mexico's disparate political spectrum as the proposed nuclear waste dump outside the Texas community of Sierra Blanca, situated 18 miles north of the border and 80 miles southeast of El Paso. The Mexican Congress voted unanimously to oppose construction of the dump, and political leaders from every party have united in protest marches, petitions and visits to Texas Gov. George W. Bush's office in Austin and congressional suites in Washington. At an annual meeting of members of the U.S. and Mexican congresses this summer, the planned Sierra Blanca dump stirred far more passionate debate than the issues of drug trafficking or immigration, usually the hottest flash points between the two groups of lawmakers. "The symbolism of the issue is perceived in very clear-cut terms," said Mexican Sen. Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, who participated in the meeting. "It's an expression of bigotry. This is a trend to get as close as possible to the border with toxic waste dumps and reduce the risk of contamination in the United States." While the proposed dump has united usually warring Mexican political factions, the issue has been bitterly divisive in Texas, pitting county attorney against county manager and splitting the Texas congressional delegation. In a show of just how nasty the differences have become, Thomas W. Chellis, dump opponent and county attorney for Hudspeth County, where Sierra Blanca is located, last month allowed protest marchers access to the courthouse bathrooms through the back door of his office, provoking County Manager James A. Peace to padlock the door. Chellis then cut off the lock to gain access to his own office. The battle over Sierra Blanca has spanned nearly two decades, since Texas first began looking for a dump site to comply with federal law urging states to take responsibility for disposing low-level nuclear waste generated by power stations, hospitals and research laboratories. The alternative has been to ship it to one of two operating dumps in Richland, Wash., and Barnwell, S.C. Four other sites have been closed over the years because of various problems. In a decision shadowed by allegations of political shenanigans, the Texas state legislature ordered the dump built on a 16,000-acre ranch that the state purchased five miles east of Sierra Blanca, which has a population of 600. Environmentalists allege the site is situated over a dangerous fault line in a region that has experienced dozens of earthquakes in the last 70 years. They say potential leaks could endanger underground water aquifers. They complain that Sierra Blanca already has the nation's largest sewage sludge dump and that the trend toward situating waste dumps along the southern border of Texas violates a 1983 pact between the United States and Mexico to "prevent, reduce and eliminate sources of pollution" within 60 miles of the border. But Hudspeth County officials and Sierra Blanca business leaders argue that the site for low-level nuclear waste is safe and that in a poor county where the biggest single employer is the U.S. Border Patrol, the dump would bring a needed financial windfall. Even though the dump has not been built, the county has received service fees that have helped build a new park, library and health clinic, refurbish the high school football field and buy new school buses and ambulances. Regarding the safety question, County Manager Peace said: "There's a potential danger in anything. It won't be any worse than anything else." Meanwhile, the conflict continues. In July, two Texas administrative judges recommended, after two years of study, that the state deny the licenses sought by the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority to build the dump, citing the "failure to adequately characterize the fault directly beneath the site and . . . to adequately address potential negative socioeconomic impacts from the proposed facility." But the recommendation is only advisory, and both supporters and opponents said they expect Texas authorities to give final approval to the dump despite the warnings. In addition, the U.S. Senate recently voted to allow Texas to enter into contracts with Maine and Vermont to accept out-of-state nuclear waste at the site. And, after years of opposition, the administration of Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo -- much to the dismay of political leaders from every party -- retreated recently from its stand against the dump. Zedillo's office said that although the facility hardly fostered neighborly relations, Mexican studies indicate the proposed site is safe and poses no threat to Mexican citizens. Bill Addington, a Sierra Blanca merchant and one of the town's most vocal opponents of the proposed dump, said the citizens of the community feel "hopeless and powerless" in the face of decisions being made in distant state and national capitals: "It's not about science, it's about politics. They'd never put a dump next to a suburb of Dallas." _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 08:37:46 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Impeaching Clinton for the Stockpile Stewardship Program For the record, I agree with David McR that it's a waste of time to try to get Congress to go after Clinton on substantive issues. However, letters to Congress, the press, and the White House, are seeds planted. I'm a big advocate of planting seeds. Sometimes they grow and bear fruit. Ellen Thomas Proposition One Committee | Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil PO Box 27217, Washington DC 20038 202-462-0757 -- fax 202-265-5389 prop1@prop1.org -- http://prop1.org - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 09:22:03 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Depleted Uranium and Pentagon "Smart Book" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/20/ veterans.dtl By Kathleen Sullivan SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER STAFF Sunday, September 20, 1998 Pentagon to add uranium to "smart book' Inclusion in the soldier's manual is seen as a victory for veterans group ARLINGTON, Va. -- In a move applauded by Gulf War veterans, the Pentagon has announced plans to add information about the hazards of depleted uranium explosions to its "smart book," the manual issued to all soldiers during basic training. The book, formally known as the "Common Tasks Training" or CTT manual, lists about 40 duties soldiers must master -- how to dig a foxhole, read a compass, administer first aid, survive in hot and cold weather. Soldiers call it the smart book because failing to heed its directives can lead to fatal mistakes on the battlefield. When the revised manual is issued later this year, it will also tell soldiers how to protect themselves from the hazards linked to depleted uranium ammunition, which is made of a heavy metal that is radioactive, said Lt. Col. Charles Kelsey, who serves on the faculty of the Pentagon's medical school in Bethesda, Md. During an interview Saturday at the third annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference, a three-day gathering in Arlington, Kelsey said the new manual will address the hazards of depleted uranium and other radioactive substances. Kelsey said the hazards posed by depleted uranium were "pretty minor" compared with other battlefield dangers. But Paul Sullivan, executive director of the national Gulf War Resource Center which sponsored the conference, hailed the Pentagon's move as a victory for today's soldiers. In recent years the group, a coalition of veterans-rights organizations across the country, has been pressuring the Pentagon to train soldiers about the hazards of depleted uranium exposure. The Gulf War Resource Center also advocates medical care and compensation for Gulf War veterans and their families. The Pentagon has admitted that soldiers sent to the Gulf were not told that inhaling, ingesting or absorbing the hazardous residue created by a depleted uranium explosion could cause cancer, or respiratory, kidney and skin disorders. "We want to learn from the mistakes of the past," Sullivan said. Now, many veterans are fighting for medical care and compensation for ailments they believe are linked to depleted uranium exposure. In January the Pentagon said "thousands" of soldiers may have been exposed to depleted uranium. Veterans groups have said they believe as many as 400,000 soldiers may have been exposed. The explosions, the Pentagon said, created an estimated 630,000 pounds of depleted uranium dust and debris. Anthony Hardie, a 30-year-old Gulf War veteran attending the conference, said depleted uranium was one of many toxic substances soldiers were exposed to in the Gulf. "What happened to us should never again happen," he said. "It's important that we protect our current force in the Gulf and in the service. "The manual fits in the cargo pocket of battle-dress uniform pants," said Hardie, who served in the Gulf and in Somalia, and is president of the Gulf War Veterans of Wisconsin. "You carry it with you everywhere." Hardie said he became an advocate for Gulf War veterans out of necessity when he couldn't get medical care at his local VA hospital for illnesses he said are linked to his tour of duty in the Gulf. The depleted-uranium ammunition, which was fired by U.S. tanks and aircraft, was used for the first time in combat in the Gulf. It ignites on impact and blasts holes through tanks. Many nations have since added it to their arsenals. _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #18 ********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" 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.