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abolition-usa-digest     Sunday, December 27 1998     Volume 01 : Number 053




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

Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 02:30:38 -0600 (CST)
From: [e-mail] (Robert Smirnow)
Subject: (abolition-usa) "NUKES IN SPACE II" VIDEO  AVAILABLE NOW!!!!!

- ----
From: joan and steve <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: envirovideo


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Further Information Call:  Karl Grossman [phone]
                                               Steve Jambeck or Joan
Flynn [phone]

NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS
POWERFUL NEW DOCUMENTARY RELEASED BY ENVIROVIDEO


        Nukes In Space 2: Unacceptable Risks provides an update on the
Cassini space probe with 72.3 pounds of lethal plutonium on board, the
scheduled August 1999 Cassini Earth ôfly-byö and the consequences of an
accident. It reports on NASAÆs planned additional plutonium missions
and
investigates the U.S. militaryÆs aim to ôcontrol spaceö and the Earth
below with space-based nuclear-powered weaponry.

        Nukes In Space 2, produced by EnviroVideo, is hosted and
written
by
investigative reporter Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the
State University of New York, directed by Emmy Award-winner Steve
Jambeck with Joan Flynn as associate producer.

        Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, founder of the profession of health physics
and
former director of the Health Physics Division at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, states in Nukes In Space 2 that those behind the use of
plutonium in space ôare very brazen and almost inhuman in their
attitude, willing to run the risk of imposing a catastrophe on Earth
that manÆs never known before, where he cannot inhabit this space on
our
planet for the next million yearsàIt is inconceivable to me that you
would allow such high-risk of plutonium contamination on the Earth.ö

        Alan Kohn, a 30-year NASA veteran and a long-time emergency
preparedness officer for NASA, says in Nukes In Space 2: ôThe people
should rise up and protest this. We should not allow our democratic
government to do this to us. It is our responsibility and our duty to
prevent them from putting us at risk. We have to stop them. They wonÆt
stop themselves.ö

Nukes In Space 2 tells how the Cassini plutonium fueled space probe,
launched by NASA in October 1997, is slated to come hurtling back from
outer space on August 18, 1999 at 42,300 miles per hour to buzz the
Earth less than 500 miles high in a ôgravity assistö or ôslingshotö
maneuver so it can reach its final destination of Saturn.

It presents NASA's own acknowledgement in its Final Environmental
Impact
Statement for the Cassini Mission that if Cassini makes an "inadvertent
reentry" into the EarthÆs atmosphere during the ôflyby,ö the probe will
break up, plutonium will disperse and ôapproximately five billion of
the
estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the timeàcould receive 99
percent or more of the radiation exposure."

 Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of nuclear physics at the City University
of
New York, declares in Nukes In Space 2 that NASA could have substituted
a solar energy system for plutonium power on Cassini by shaving off
just
1 percent, about 130 pounds,  from its weight. Former NASA scientist
Dr.
Ross McCluney agrees and cites a ôlack of vision at the highest level
of
NASA. I think they have another agenda behind-the-scenes.ö

The manufacturers of plutonium space systems, General Electric and now
Lockheed Martin, the U.S. governmentÆs string of national nuclear
laboratories involved in fabricating the systems, and the
U.S. Department of Energy, have all been pushing nuclear power in
space.
There is also a military connection, according to Nukes In Space 2.
ôStar Wars is the name of the game,ö declares Dr. Kaku in this
documentary.

Nukes In Space 2 probes the PentagonÆs plan to deploy weapons in space.
It
reveals a U.S. Air Force report, New World Vistas: Air and Space Power
for the 2lst Century, which states, ôIn the next two decades, new
technologies will allow the fielding of space-based weapons of
devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver energy and mass as
force
projection in tactical and strategic conflictàlasers with reasonable
mass and cost to effect very many kills.ö However, says New World
Vistas, there are ôpower limitationsö currently for such weaponry. ôA
natural technology to enable high power is nuclear power in space,ö it
declares.

Nukes In Space 2 explores the U.S. Space CommandÆs desire to become
ômaster of spaceö in order to ôcontrol spaceö and the Earth below. It
exposes the U.S. Space CommandÆs Vision For 2020 report that describes
the commandÆs mission as ôdominating the space dimension of military
operations to protect US interests and investment.ö

Among others appearing in Nukes In Space 2 are: Dr. Helen Caldicott,
president emeritus of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Dr. Ernest
Sternglass, professor emeritus of radiological physics at the
University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Dr. Rosalie Bertell, president of the
International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Harvey Wasserman
of Greenpeace U.S.A.; Helen John of the Menwith Hill WomenÆs Peace
Camp;
editor Loring Wirbel; Bill Sulzman of Citizens for Peace in Space; and
Bruce Gagnon and Regina Hagen of the Global Network Against Weapons and
Nuclear Power in Space.

Nukes In Space 2 also shows how the use of nuclear power and planned
deployment of weapons in space are illegal under the Outer Space
Treaty.

Nukes In Space 2 follows EnviroVideoÆs 1995 video documentary, Nukes In
Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens, which
received three major film and video festival awards including the
Worldfest Gold Award at the Houston International Film and Video
Festival, the worldÆs largest film and video festival.

TO OBTAIN A COPY OF NUKES IN SPACE 2: UNACCEPTABLE RISKS
Send $19.95 +$2(s&h) to: EnviroVideo, Box 311, Ft. Tilden NY 11695
or call EnviroVideo 1-800-ECO-TV46  email: [e-mail]
For more information visit the Stop Cassini Earth Fly-by Action Site:
www.nonviolence.org/noflyby



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

Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 23:24:33 -0500
From: Peter Weiss <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) New idea on Iraq!

Interesting idea. Another would be to set a definite date for the end of
sanctions provided certain psecific UNSCOM requirements, such as the
production of the famous documents, are met. But I'm afraid Butler, in
league with the U.S., would set unrealistic terms.

Timothy Bruening wrote:
>
> I suspect that one reason the U.S. is reluctant to end the sanctions against
> Iraq is the fear that the U.S. will never be able to get the sanctions
> restored if Iraq misbehaves in a major way.  To solve that problem, I
> propose that the sanctions be suspended for 30 days to test Iraq's
> willingness to cooperate with UN inspectors, with the provision that the UN
> Security Council would have to vote after 30 days to extend the suspension.
> This would ease the plight of the Iraqi people, give Iraq reason to
> cooperate, and preserve the option of restoring the sanctions if Iraq
> doesn't cooperate, so as to discourage Iraq from obstructing UN inspections
> again.  I bet that the U.S. would be more willing to lift the sanctions if
> there was a provision for automatically reimposing the sanctions if Iraq
> misbehaves.
>
> -
>  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]"
 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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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 10:31:17 -0500
From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) START in Spring?

Reuters and AP stories on the prospects of START II in Russia  . . .

RTos 12/22 0909  START-2 Pact On Duma '99 Plan But Fate In Fog


    By Ivan Rodin
     MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament has kept a
ratification debate on the START-2 nuclear arms reduction treaty on its
agenda for 1999 despite its anger at U.S.-led strikes against Iraq.
     Vladimir Ryzhkov, first deputy speaker of the State Duma, said
Tuesday that inclusion of the debate in the chamber's timetable for its
spring session starting on January 12 "signals its intention to continue
work on this international treaty."
     But he made clear any optimism that the 1993 treaty might finally
be confirmed by the reluctant Russians was premature.
     "The document is on the agenda but there is no guarantee that it
will be ratified or discussed during the spring session," Ryzhkov said.
     Many politicians, including Kremlin officials lobbying for swift
ratification of START-2, say last week's U.S.-led air strikes against
Iraq may have removed any chance of the Duma ratifying the treaty with
the United States before a new parliament is elected in about a year's
time.
     Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov again sounded defiant Tuesday,
saying the strikes had damaged the ratification process.
     "By giving the order to bomb Iraq, the U.S. president and British
prime minister raised a serious obstacle on the path to ratification of
START-2. We are now not reviewing this document," Seleznyov, a
Communist, said.
     But Roman Popkovich, chairman of the Duma defense committee which
supports the pact, told RIA news agency he had insisted on postponing
the debate until next year not due to the air strikes but because of new
documents which had to be studied first.
     "The postponement is in no way linked to the bombardment of
Iraq...We had received the government's feasibility study for the
development of the strategic nuclear forces and we needed time to study
those materials," Popkovich said, adding he was convinced "Russia is
more than anyone interested in the pact."
     He said the Duma could debate the ratification in the second half
of February.
     All Duma parties condemned the U.S. action and a senior Communist
figure has suggested dropping the issue from the Duma's timetable
altogether. It has already missed a tentative schedule under which it
would have been debated this month.
     President Boris Yeltsin's representative in the Duma, Alexander
Kotenkov, said last week he thought ratification was unlikely before
elections for a new Duma in late 1999. The U.S. Senate has already
ratified the treaty.
     Momentum toward ratification had been building since the
appointment of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and his compromise
government on September 11.
     Under the treaty, each side would scrap up to two thirds of their
deployed warheads to 3,500 each by 2007.

     The Kremlin and the government have been calling for ratification,
saying Russia needs to slim down its forces to be able to afford to
modernize them.
     But some deputies say Russia cannot afford the costly process of
taking missiles out of service without more financial help from the
United States. Some say Russia should not be reducing its defenses at
all.
*******************************************************************
APn  12/22 0846  Russia-START II


   MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's parliament has put off debate on START II
until next spring at the earliest, in part because the bombing of Iraq
has stirred up anti-American sentiment.
   A visiting U.S. delegation had said earlier this month that Russia's
parliament might ratify the arms control accord this year. But Vladimir
Ryzhkov, the deputy speaker of parliament's lower house, said today the
treaty was put on the agenda for the spring session of the State Duma.
   "This, of course, does not guarantee either the ratification of the
START II treaty, or even that it will be considered by the State Duma,"
he told Russian news agencies. "It simply shows that the State Duma
intends to continue work in this direction."
   Ryzhkov supports the treaty. But he said Russian lawmakers still had
a "sharply negative attitude" toward last week's U.S. and British
airstrikes against Iraq. The two countries bombed Iraq for refusing to
cooperate with
United Nations weapons inspectors.
   Russia and the United States signed START II in 1993, and the U.S.
Senate ratified it in 1996. Communists and other hard-liners contend the
pact could weaken Russia's security and would be too expensive to
implement.
   The treaty calls for both countries to cut their nuclear arsenals in
half to about 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each.
   Russian military officials say many of the country's nuclear weapons
are nearing the end of their service life and will have to be dismantled
in any case.


- --
DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE
Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools
Kathy Crandall, Coordinator
1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005
TEL: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm
http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm

A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility
and Women's Action for New Directions



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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.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

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

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:15:36 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: s4p-80: Stop the war against Iraq

>Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 15:55:14 -0500
>Subject: s4p-80: Stop the war against Iraq
>To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
> [e-mail]
>From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
>
>
>The USA and Britain, and their allies insofar as they support the bombing,
>are engaged in warfare against Iraq, in open violation of international
>law and in contempt of human suffering. Four items that support this
>contention follow below:
>
>1] a comment by Noam Chomsky on the geopolitical significance;
>
>2] facts about the human tragedy of the UN Sanctions against Iraq, which
>were precipated by the 1991 Gulf War and are compounded by the 1998
>bombing;
>
>3] a poem "My Name is Hammurabi" by David Morgan, which evokes a warning
>to oppressors that echoes down the millennia; Hammurabi was Ruler of
>Babylon
>(now Iraq) more than 4,000 years ago, and was the first great law-giver of
>history.
>
>4] international laws to which the USA and Britain are signatory that
>explicitly forbid the bombing with its consequences for the people of Iraq.
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>1] http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/12/21/981221-nc.htm
>Bombing Iraq - A Response Noam Chomsky
>21 December 1998
>
>I think the major reasons are the usual ones. The USA and its increasingly
>pathetic British lieutenant want the world to understand -- and in
>particular want the people of the Middle East region to understand -- that
>"What We Say Goes," as Bush defined his New World Order while the missiles
>were raining on Baghdad in February 1991. The message, clear and simple,
>is that we are violent and lawless states, and if you don't like it, get
>out of our way. It's a message of no small significance. Simply have a
>look at the projections of geologists concerning the expanding role of
>Middle East oil in global energy production in the coming decades. I
>suspect that the message is understood in the places to which it is
>addressed. A very conservative assessment is that the US/UK attacks are
>"aggression," to borrow the apt term of the Vatican and others. They are
>as clear an example of a war crime as one could construct. In the past,
>acts of aggression, international terrorism, and violence have sometimes
>been cloaked in at least a pretense of legalism -- increasingly ludicrous
>over the years, to be sure. In this case there was not even a pretense.
>Rather, the US and its client simply informed the world that they are
>criminal states, and that the structure of binding international law and
>conventions that has been laboriously constructed over many years is now
>terminated. It is still available, of course, as a weapon against
>designated enemies, but apart from that it is without significance or
>value. True, that has been always been operative reality, but it has
>rarely been declared with such clarity and dramatic force.
><snip>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>2] Some facts about the Human Tragedy in Iraq:
>
>The ongoing United Nations sanctions against Iraq are regarded as the most
>stringent imposed on any country in the history of the United Nations.
>
>More than one million Iraqis have died, 567,000 of them children, as a
>direct consequence of the sanctions. As many as 12% of the children
>surveyed in Baghdad are handicapped for life, 28% stunted in growth.  By
>1996, 4,500 children under the age of five were dying each month in Iraq,
>primarily from malnutrition. The number is rapidly rising because of the
>continuation of the U.N. sanctions.  There are more than 1.5 million
>orphans in Iraq. Up to 95% of all pregnant women in Iraq suffer from
>anemia, and thus will give birth to weak, malnutritioned infants. Most of
>these infants will either die before reaching the age of 5 due to the lack
>of food and basic medicines, or will be permanently scarred.
>
>United Nations Resolution 986, the limited oil sale agreement (oil for
>food), allocates less than 25 cents per day per person for all food and
>medical expenses. Approximately 35% of revenue is designated to Kuwait and
>other countries. More than 10% of revenue is designated to pay for U.N.
>activities in Iraq. The U.N. charges Iraq approximately $900,000 for
>generating each report about the situation in Iraq.
>
>Environmental Impacts: more than 500 tons of highly toxic and radioactive
>depleted uranium (DU) were fired into the environment. Upon impact, more
>than 70% of the uranium oxidizes into a fine aerosol mist which can be
>readily inhaled into the lungs contaminating the food and water supply and
>potentially resulting in numerous immune system related diseases, cancers,
>congenital deformities, leukemia and renal and hepatic dysfunction which
>are occurring throughout Iraq and among U.S., U.K. and o ther Allied
>soldiers.
>
>Sources: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF.
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ---
>
>3] From: David Morgan <[e-mail]>
>
>Hammurabi, was Ruler of Babylon, 2067-2025 BC., in what is now Iraq. He
>lived about 800 years before Moses, and 1500 years before the founding of
>Rome.  He was the first great law-giver of history ..."to uphold justice
>in the land" ..." in order that the strong should not oppress the weak,
>and that widows and orphans should be rightly dealt with."  He fused local
>laws and precepts into a comprehensive legal code of 300 paragraphs.
>(Ceram, 1968, p.305)
>                      **********
>
>                MY NAME IS HAMMURABI
>      A message of comfort to the people of Iraq
>       and a warning  to the people of America
>
>My name is Hammurabi, Law Giver
>and I speak to you, my people
>in the beloved land of the two rivers,
>I speak to you across the centuries.
>I, Hammurabi who gave the law to my people
>in order that the strong
>should not oppress the weak
>and that the widows and orphans
>should be rightly protected,
>I speak to you in your hour of need
>in an hour when this beloved land
>is oppressed from afar by the strong
>who lay-siege to it like a city
>who cause the water channels to dry up
>who make the farmer's land into a desert
>who bring great hunger and starvation
>who bring disease and death to our children.
>This, while many of the people
>in the lands of the strong,
>in the lands of your oppressors,
>know-not what they do,
>and many who know, care-not;
>I speak to you, beloved people
>in this hour of pain and sorrow
>and I say to you:
>Be comforted.
>
>For did I not set out in this land
>the words of the law?
>and did I not cause this law to be written
>on pillars of hard stone for all to see, in many places?
>and did this law not grow from the ancient customs
>and the wisdom of village, town and city?
>and did this law not bring justice and peace
>to our beloved land of the two rivers
>so that water flowed in all the channels
>so that our fields rippled with grain
>and so there was laughter and song in the villages?
>
>And through these many centuries
>has the law not spread to all lands?
>Even to the lands of your oppressors?
>And is it not written and set out there,
>for all to see in many places?
>And do the laws of your oppressors
>permit and allow the strong
>to oppress the weak?
>And do they fail to protect
>the widows, the orphans and the little children?
>So I say to you: Be comforted.
>For though your oppressors are strong
>and come against you with great weapons of thunder,
>yet their purposes are small
>and they have no vision,
>and those who do not obey their own laws
>shall come to nothing.
>
>For the centuries are full
>of those who brought fire and destruction
>of those who did not follow the law
>and those who lacked wisdom:
>the stiff-necked, the haughty,
>the cruel and the greedy,
>and the nations that they led
>have vanished and their names
>have become a curse
>in the mouth of mankind.
>For the law is more enduring
>even than hard stone
>and the nations that have no law
>and the nations that mock their own laws
>come quickly to an end;
>so your oppressors shall not endure
>they will crumble and blow away like dust;
>like a house of mud in the desert wind
>they will vanish and be gone.
>
>         by David Morgan, Vancouver BC, 6 April 1998.
>
>Note: if you wish to transmit this poem please do not edit or change it,
>and if you print it for distribution please send David Morgan a copy.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>4] International Laws to which the U.S.A. and Britain are signatory:
>
>CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS, Article 2
>3. All members shall settle their international disputes by
>peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and
>security, and justice are not endangered.
>
>PROTOCOL TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, 1977 Chapter III. Civilian Objects
>Article 54. Protection of Objects Indispensible to the Survival of the
>Civilian Population
>1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.
>2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects
>indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as
>foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops,
>livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation
>works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value
>to the civilian population, or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive,
>whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or
>for any other motive.
>
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
15 East 26th Street, Room 915
New York, NY 10010
tel:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.

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

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:21:03 -0500
From: Kathy Crandall <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) A present for you

The Disarmament Clearinghouse wants to make sure you are well-prepared
for 1999 nuclear disarmament advocacy.

With thanks to Bruce Hall at Peace Action, we have for you a 4 panel
postcard mailer alert with two post cards to send - one to President
Clinton, and another to Russian Prime Minister Primakov.

The text of the mailer is below. If you need to see it in full graphic
detail, it will be posted on our web site on Jan. 5, 1999.

But if you're ready to commit to nuclear disarmament activity in 1999
right now. . .
Order as many cards as you think you can distribute.  You'll only need
to pay for postage. The cost of mailing each complete mailer-alert is
.32 (going up to .33 on Jan. 10 - which should give you an incentive to
order right now!) .

**To order cards:**
send an e-mail message to: <[e-mail]>
Tell me: How many cards
Tell me:  Would you like cards printed with the Disarmament
Clearinghouse return-address, or  would you like the return address
blank  so that you can stamp/ label your own return address?

Tell me: Your full address with zip code, and your phone number

We'd like to have as many postcards out before the State of the Union
Address - now scheduled for Jan. 19, but the postcards will have a valid
and compelling message through the Spring of 1999.

I'm  going to be out of the office until Jan. 5, but retired elves are
coming to help me fill your orders promptly - and I'll do my best to get
them to you by Jan. 8th.

HERE'S THE MAILER
OUTSIDE PANEL 1 -

It's our move...

Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

- -------------------------------
 OUTSIDE PANEL 2
(in the return address... or this can be blank)
      Disarmament Clearinghouse
      A project of Peace Action * Physicians for Social
          Responsibility and Women's Action for New Directions
      1101 14th Street NW Suite 700
      Washington, DC 20005


- -----------------------------------
OUTSIDE PANEL 3

                         The Honorable Yevgeni Primakov
                         Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
                         2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW
                         Washington, DC 20007


- --------------------------------------
OUTSIDE PANEL 4

                         The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
                         The White House
                         Washington, DC 20500

- ---------------------------------------
INSIDE PANELS 1 & 2 (reverse side of cover)

      Despite the end of the Cold War there remain an estimated
36,000 nuclear weapons in the world.  Thousands of these are on
hair-trigger alert, ready to launch on a moment's notice.

THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT - NEITHER CAN WE
      Russia's plunge into economic chaos raises serious concerns
about that country's ability to control it's vast nuclear arsenal.
Kremlin officials now admit that Russia can no longer afford to maintain
thousands of nuclear weapons as envisioned under existing arms control
treaties.  Immediate U.S. action is crucial to ensure that Russia's
nuclear decline takes place in a controlled, verified manner instead of
a chaotic and dangerous freefall.
      Even the United States Pentagon, faced with the prospect of
spending billions of dollars on maintaining and nuclear weapons that we
clearly no longer need, is quietly urging President Clinton to
unilaterally scrap thousands of U.S. nuclear weapons.

A NEW ARMS RACE OR A NEW AGENDA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT?
     An ever-growing number of countries are lining up to join the
nuclear club - increasing the risk of a nuclear catastrophe
somewhere on the planet.  But against this chilling backdrop, a new
worldwide movement is taking shape among governments and citizen groups
to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.

Only strong U.S. leadership can avert another nuclear arms race and put
the world on the path to nuclear disarmament.

What you can do:

The United States and Russia hold the keys to a nuclear
weapons-free 21st Century. Contact President Clinton and Russian
Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov today.

Tear off and sign the post cards below and mail them to White House and
the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.  (Remember, handwritten letters
are always the most effective way to reach politicians, so if you have
time, write a letter)

Contact your Senators at U.S. Senate * Washington, DC 20510.  Urge them
to cut our massive Cold War nuclear arsenal.

Contact the Disarmament Clearinghouse for more information.
202.898.0150 ext. 232 [e-mail]
http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm

A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility
and Women's Action for New Directions
- ----------------------------------------------------------------- --

INSIDE PANEL 3

The Honorable Yevgeni Primakov
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20007

Dear Prime Minister:

I am increasingly concerned about the continued existence
and spread of nuclear weapons.  Despite the dramatic reduction in
tensions between our two countries, thousands of nuclear weapons
remain on hair trigger alert.  Surely, together, these two great
countries can agree to relax this Cold War nuclear posture and
greatly reduce the danger of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear
strike.

Only your leadership, along with the leadership of President
Clinton, can move the world away from the dangers of nuclear
weapons and toward a nuclear weapons-free 21st Cenutury. I urge you to
work with President Clinton to reduce rapidly the number of nuclear
weapons in the world. In addition, I urge you to take bold measures to
lower immediately the alert status of the nuclear weapons in your
country's arsenal. I have sent a similar message to President Clinton.

These measures will set the stage for a much safer future.

Sincerely,

______________________________________
 (name)

______________________________________
 (address)

_____________________________________
 (city, state, zip)

- ---------------------------------------------------------------
INSIDE PANEL 4

The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Clinton:

I am increasingly concerned about the continued existence
and spread of nuclear weapons.  Despite the end of the Cold War and the
dramatic reduction in tensions between the United States and Russia,
thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair-trigger alert.

It is time to relax this dangerous and costly Cold War nuclear
posture.  Even the Pentagon has come to the conclusion that our
massive nuclear arsenal is too costly to maintain.

Only your leadership, along with the leadership of the Russian
governement, can move the world away from the dangers of nuclear
weapons and toward a nuclear weapons-free 21st Cenutury. I urge you to
take bold measures to reduce immediately the alert status of the nuclear
weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and to make a new round of nuclear
reduction talks with the Russian government a top priority in 1999.

These measures could become the most lasting and important part of your
legacy and will set the stage for a much safer future.

Sincerely,

- ----------------------------------
(name)

- ----------------------------------
(address)

- ----------------------------------
(city, state, zip)










- --
DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE
Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools
Kathy Crandall, Coordinator
1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005
TEL: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm
http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm

A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility
and Women's Action for New Directions



- --
DISARMAMENT CLEARINGHOUSE
Nuclear Disarmament Information, Resources & Action Tools
Kathy Crandall, Coordinator
1101 14th Street NW #700, Washington DC 20005
TEL: [phone] ext. 232 FAX: [phone] ext. 232
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
http://www.psr.org/Disarmhouse.htm
http://www.psr.org/ctbtaction.htm

A project of: Peace Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility
and Women's Action for New Directions



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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.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 17:54:24 -0700
From: "Robert Kinsey" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) A present for you

Please send 200 post cards with return address blank.
6555 Ward Road
Arvada, Colorado 80004
____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Bob Kinsey, Peace and Justice Task Force
United Church of Christ, Rocky Mountain Conference
[e-mail]
303-425-0348
"Two paths lie before us.  One leads to death, the other to  life."
Jonathan Schell
"Faith has need of the whole truth"  Teilhard de Chardin



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

Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 02:20:45 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Good news a bit late

I should have put this out on Saturday - but even if you missed it, you can
take heart. The AFSC organized a quarter page ad on the Op Ed page of the
Christmas Day NY Times - last Friday.

It was an appeal to "Stop the Killing" and lift the Sanctions. The main funds
came from the AFSC but certainly other groups helped and the signers included
pretty much all the peace groups, including War Resisters League. I don't know
if this is on the internet Times or not.

But even if you missed this, I know you can take heart that there is some open
statement against the bombing, and against the sanctions. Most of the signing
groups were in the religious community. (The cost of an op ed quarter page is,
I think, $32,000).

Peace,
David McReynolds

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

Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 10:25:00 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) A present for you

Hi,

With children home (can I blame it on them?) I have lost the address to
request postcards. Do you still have it and if so can you forward it to me??

Thanks,

Colby Lowe
member, National Board, Peace Action

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 01:09:18 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell (if you don't get the NY Times)

I'm grateful to Ben, a member of the Socialist Party USA, for getting this in
a form I can just send out to those who may have missed it. The NY Times has
carried several quite powerful pieces of reporting, which I take may imply a
shift in the position of the Establishment.

Peace,
David McReynolds

<< Subj:     Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell
 Date:    12/28/98 12:53:29 AM Eastern Standard Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Ben Markeson)
 To:    [e-mail]
 CC:    [e-mail]

 Posted by Ben Markeson, Orlando Local, Socialist Party U.S.A.

 December 28, 1998 (New York Times)

           Iraq Is a Pediatrician's Hell: No Way to Stop the Dying


           By STEPHEN KINZER

               BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The greatest misfortune that has
               been visited on 3-year-old Isra Ahmed was not
           contracting leukemia. It was contracting leukemia in
           Iraq at a time when the country's medical system is all
           but paralyzed as a result of economic sanctions imposed
           by the United Nations eight years ago.

           Since Isra's illness was diagnosed earlier this year,
           she has spent most of her time in the Saddam Central
           Teaching Hospital for Pediatrics in Baghdad. She bleeds
           profusely from her nose, gums and rectum. Her mother has
           bought her earrings and a colorful clip to bind her
           thinning hair into a ponytail, but whatever diversion
           she has is likely to be only temporary.

           In developed countries, the cure rate for leukemia
           approaches 70 percent. In Iraq it is near zero.

           "It's still not too late to save this girl's life if we
           can give her a bone-marrow transplant," said Dr. Jasim
           Mazin, the hospital's chief resident. "But we don't have
           the equipment to perform that kind of operation. We're
           helpless."

           In his five years at Saddam Central, virtually all of
           his leukemia patients have died. Their deaths , coupled
           with those who die of gastrointestinal diseases,
           diarrhea, dehydration and other easily curable ailments,
           have clearly taken a toll on him. He often works 20
           hours a day, and although he is just 28, he looks nearly
           twice that age.

           "Iraq used to be the best country in the Arab world in
           terms of science and medicine," Mazin said as he made
           his rounds on a recent morning. "Now we can't even read
           medical journals, because they are covered by the
           embargo."

           "I can't believe I use disposable syringes on one
           patient after another, or perform operations with
           worn-out instruments in operating theaters that are not
           even disinfected," he said. "It's very difficult to work
           very hard on a patient, try to care for him, and then
           lose him because you can't get some silly thing that you
           could pick up in a drugstore in any other country.

           "And this is the best-supplied children's hospital in
           Iraq. If you go out into the provinces, you see that
           things are much worse."

           The coordinator of U.N. relief programs here, Hans von
           Sponeck, toured hospitals outside Baghdad last month and
           reported that much of the equipment he saw "was fit only
           for a museum." He said some of it is actually
           endangering the health of patients and staff, such as
           X-ray machines that leak radiation and malfunctioning
           incinerators that leave residues of toxic medical waste.

           Although the effect of sanctions is evident in every
           aspect of Iraqi life, there are few places where it is
           more poignantly visible than at hospitals like Saddam
           Central. According to U.N. figures, government spending
           on medicine and medical equipment has fallen by more
           than 90 percent since the sanctions were imposed after
           Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the country began
           spiraling into economic collapse. Not a single new
           hospital has been built in that time, although the
           country's population has grown from 15 million to 22
           million.

           Iraqi doctors say conditions have improved since 1996,
           when the U.N. began allowing the government to sell
           limited amounts of oil and use some of the income it
           earns to buy food and medicine. About $450 million worth
           of drugs and medical supplies have entered the country
           since then, though the United Nations says distribution
           is inadequate owing to "transport and logistic
           difficulties."

           The Clinton administration defends sanctions as an
           indispensable part of the Western campaign to bring down
           President Saddam Hussein, whom Western powers have
           accused of threatening the Middle East by building
           weapons of mass destruction. The administration has,
           however, signaled its willingness to consider an
           expansion of the oil-for-food program that could allow
           Iraq to improve the abysmal conditions into which its
           heath care system has fallen.

           Any improvement would probably come too late for most of
           the children now lying listlessly in their hospital beds
           here.

           "Inside the hospitals is where you have to go if you
           want to see why so much antagonism and resentment is
           building up here," said Kathy Kelly, who runs a
           Chicago-based group called Voices in the Wilderness that
           is campaigning against the sanctions and who is making
           her ninth visit to Iraq since 1990. "I've seen doctors
           go from super-heroes to almost clinically depressed."

           At Saddam Central, Mazin said he maintains his
           equilibrium by concentrating on the children he has been
           able to save. He said his worst period came last April,
           when he lost about 75 children during a two-week
           epidemic of chest infections and gastroenteritis. Every
           one of them, he believes, could have been saved with
           antibiotics that are commonly available in neighboring
           countries.

           Some patients at Saddam Central need more than medicine.
           Among them is 16-month-old Affaf Hussein, whose facial
           irregularities suggest congenital deformity. He suffers
           from recurrent pneumonia, and his mother spends several
           hours each day holding a respirator over his face so he
           can inhale moist oxygen.

           "This child is very sick," Mazin said. "I believe he has
           some kind of genetic disorder, but we don't have the
           tools to diagnose what it is. We can't do anything for
           him."

           One of the few bright spots at Saddam Central is a
           beaming 10-year-old named Marua Tariq, who comes in for
           a checkup every month wearing her favorite brightly
           patterned sweater. She has leukemia, but was released
           from the hospital six months ago after her case
           stabilized, and has shown no symptoms since then. If she
           can stay healthy for another four and a half years, she
           will be considered cured, the first such case since the
           sanctions began.

           "I'm feeling good and I'm studying hard at school,"
           Marua said with a broad smile. "When I grow up I want to
           be a doctor who treats children."


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

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #53
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