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abolition-usa-digest     Tuesday, August 17 1999     Volume 01 : Number 167




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

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 1990 15:40:44 -0400
From: hcaldic <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Y2K TV movie

ASlater wrote:
>
> How about sending letters to NBC and bugging them to include nuclear weapons
> and nuclear power as part of the disaster scenario?  Alice Slater
>
> >Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 11:34:58 -0400
> >Subject: Y2K TV movie
>
> >NBC hatches Y2K disaster picture
> >
> >By Josef Adalian
> >
> >NEW YORK (Variety) - Looking to take advantage of millennium madness, NBC
> >is working on ``Y2K,'' a disaster picture
> >that imagines near-apocalyptic results brought about by the much-hyped
> >computer bug.
> >
> >The thriller stars Ken Olin (``L.A. Doctors'') as a techie trying to save
> >the United States from disasters caused by computer
> >failures as 1999 turns into 2000.
> >
> >The picture is the only announced broadcast project to date capitalizing on
> >concerns over the Y2K computer bug, in which
> >machines interpret the date 1/1/00 as Jan. 1, 1900. Analysts have predicted
> >all sorts of catastrophes as a result of the problem,
> >though forecasts regarding the actual impact of the bug vary widely.
> >
> >In ``Y2K,'' the bug causes an East Coast power outage, ATM failures,
> >airliners whose instruments don't work and other
> >assorted calamities. Olin's character battles one of the biggest imagined
> >consequences of the bug when a nuclear power plant
> >threatens to go into meltdown.
> >
> >``Y2K'' also stars Joe Morton (``Terminator 2,'' ``The Astronaut's Wife''),
> >Ronny Cox (``Total Recall,'' ``Murder at 1600'')
> >and Lauren Tom (``Friends,'' ``Futurama''). Dick Lowry (``Atomic Train'')
> >directs.
> >
> >Reuters/Variety
> >
> >Diane Hatz
> >Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
> >15 East 26th Street, Room 915
> >New York, NY 10010
> >tel:  [phone]
> >fax:  [phone]
> >
> 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.
>
> -
>  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.

    Alice, They have nuclear power as part of the disaster, it probably
overkill to use an awful term to try get them to include nuclear war as
well, Helen



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

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 21:34:46 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Project Abolition events

Hi,

Congratulations on the impending birth, or am I too late. let me know?

Where is CT in this mix? There is an abolition group centered around Hartford
as well as the group in Greenwich, Stamford. I don't know which Senator is up
for reelection this year but either one of these democratic senators is as
bad as Clinton.

Love, peace and health to you,

Colby

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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 18:04:47 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Y2K CAMPAIGN SUGGESTED SHORT/MID TERM ACTION PLAN

Dear Y2K Campaign People,

I have been asked what 'the plan' is for the Y2K campaign.

I am sure I do not have the entire campaign at my fingetips, and I know
there are people who have much more sophisticated and longer range plans
than I do.

However, the following suggestions seem to have support from a number of
quarters and seem to look as if we can do them.

There are a vast number of events happening that this does not in any way
cover. These are just obvious short/mid term foci for a Y2K campaign.  But
I do suggest strongly that these are and should be priorities for effort.

The suggested plan is as follows:

1)Continue to gather signatures for the existing B&B monster, and keep
faxing it till December.
(I am still looking for Congressional signatures and still only have Ed.
Markeys. I'd like to correct this situation asap)

2)Start a fax campaign aimed at initially the G8 Y2K meeting in Berlin over
sept 21, asking for strategic nukes to be taken off alert.

3)Support for the Markey resolution. This is best coordinated by US groups,
not from faraway Australia.

A resolution is also happening in the Canadian parliament, from senator
Doug Roche. This deserves support.

4)A resolution in the European parliament in September.

5)Further pressure on our own govt back in Oz.

I am trying very hard to make sure as many folk as possible committ to
participation in the Sept 1 fax campaign. If people can't get up to speed
by sept 1, but only a bit later that doesn't matter.

I'll be doing a model letter in the next few days.

I don't think its a very complicated plan, and others certainly have much
more sophisticated planning abilties than I do.

However, I think that these are all obvious tasks that we can all focuss on.

I would like to formally suggest that abolition caucus members and members
of the Y2K list(s) do now focuss as much as possible:

1)On preparing for a global fax campaign starting sept 1, initially
focussing on the sept 21 G8 Y2K meeting, and

2)on support for any congressional/parliamentary resolutions that may come
up in the US Congress, the European parliament or national parliaments
(such as the Canadian one), and

3)finally on getting more preferably really prominent signatories for the
letter.

I trust this makes sense, and is achievable, and don't at all want to
discourage people who are doing other things and arranging events etc that
don't fall into these categories.

By the way, the Yeltsin/Clinton monster sign - on letter can now be found on:
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd/nuclear/bbletter.html

John Hallam
Friends of the Earth Sydney,
17 Lord street, Newtown, NSW, Australia,
Fax[phone] ph (61)(2)9517-3903

[e-mail]    http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd/nuclear/bbletter.html



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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:18:22 -0400
From: Duane Peterson <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Business Leaders Live

    Reducing Nuclear Arsenal to be proposed at National Press Club
Speech Thursday

    CSPAN and National Public Radio plan to simulcast live the speech
Ben Cohen will deliver at the National Press Club's Newsmakers Luncheon in
Washington, D.C. this Thursday at 1pm Eastern Time.

    The co-founder of Ben&Jerry's was invited to discuss the efforts of
the non-profit group he founded, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
(www.moveourmoney.org and www.businessleaders.org).

    The group's 500 business executives are conducting a marketing
campaign designed to increase federal funding for state and local programs
that help kids, by cutting wasteful Pentagon spending identified by the
admirals and generals who advise the business group.

    Nuclear weapons are among the programs suggested for deep cuts by
the group, and will be  specifically targeted by Ben in his Press Club
speech.

    Duane Peterson
    Chief of Stuff
    Ben&Jerry's


"The Times, working with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a
nonpartisan organization of more than 500 executives and retired military
officers, invited commentators from around the country to discuss federal
spending priorities."
    -- The Los Angeles Times, introducing the entire op-ed page it
dedicated to our group's agenda August 2, 1999


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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:45:43 -0400
From: Bob Tiller <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Aid workers/Journalists warned about DU, but not refugees

PSR has published a new Issue Brief on DU weapons  ---- check the Nuclear
Security portion of our web site at www.psr.org

Shalom,
Bob Tiller




[e-mail] wrote:

> I pass this on for the info of someone who had asked about DU.
>
> Peace,
> David McReynolds
>
> << Subj:     Aid workers/Journalists warned about DU, but not refugees
>  Date:  8/14/99 12:59:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time
>  From:  [e-mail]
>  To:    [e-mail]
>
>  Depleted uranium effects in Balkans to be probed
>  WebPosted Fri Aug 13 14:05:57 1999
>  NAIROBI -  The United Nations is investigating possible human health
> problems
>  caused by depleted uranium weapons used in the Balkan war, the BBC said
>  Friday.
>
>  Depleted uranium, which is 1.7 times as dense as lead, allows bullets and
>  shells to pierce armour. NATO has said it was used by American "tankbuster"
>  aircraft during the war in Kosovo.
>  The UN is currently considering whether to send a team to the region to
>  assess any impact. It has already sent experts to evaluate the environmental
>  impact of the various Balkan conflicts, which have gone on for most of the
>  1990s.
>
>  Depleted uranium is mildly radioactive, and NATO says the weaponry fall-out
>  does not lead to health problems.
>
>  But many others think the substance, which burns and sprays dust on impact,
>  has a long-lasting health impact. They say that inhaling or ingesting the
>  dust particles can cause cancer.
>  The U.S Army's own Environmental Policy Institute has warned that depleted
>  uranium poses chemical and radiological risks. Many veterans of the 1991
> Gulf
>  War have charged that the substance made them sick.
>
>  Aid workers and journalists working in Kosovo have been warned about coming
>  into contact with depleted uranium, the BBC said, but refugees returning to
>  the former war zone have been given no advice.
>
>  --
>  To unsubscribe, send email to [e-mail]
>  with "unsubscribe" in the Subject line.  Send complaints that can't be
>  resolved by unsubscribing to [e-mail].
>
>
>   >>


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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 12:04:22 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: more Serbia-Kosovo news

In a message dated 8/17/99 11:20:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[e-mail] writes:

<<
 LATimes, Thursday, August 5, 1999

 Slain Serbs Bear Signs of Execution, NATO Says=20

 Kosovo: Killings, in which victims were bound and shot, appear to be
 calculated revenge by ethnic Albanians.

 By SCOTT GLOVER, Times Staff Writer

 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--Offering chilling new evidence of widespread,
 calculated revenge slayings by ethnic Albanians, a top NATO investigator
 said Wednesday that the majority of killings under investigation in and
 around Kosovo's capital are apparent executions in which the Serbian
 victims had their hands bound and were made to kneel before being
 shot in the head.

 These characteristics were common in "dozens" of slayings committed
 since NATO-led peacekeepers occupied Kosovo on June 12, said British Maj.
 John Wooldridge, a senior investigator with the Royal Military Police.
 Wooldridge deemed the killings "executions" by Albanians in which ethnic
 hatred is the presumed motive.

 "The vast majority of the murders we are investigating are murders
 where the person has been made to kneel, their hands have been tied
 behind their backs and, in a lot of cases, they've been blindfolded,"
 Wooldridge said. The victims were then shot, most with a single bullet to
 the back of the head.

 Of more than 200 killings in Kosovo since the North Atlantic Treaty
 Organization-led peace force moved in, about 120 occurred in the British
 sector.

 NATO and United Nations officials have for weeks denounced revenge
 killings, but Wooldridge's comments in an interview with The Times
 provided the most detailed official description to date of the violence.
 Prior accounts had not indicated that the slayings were so coldly
 calculated.

 Wooldridge, the top criminal investigator in the British-controlled
 sector of Kosovo, which includes Pristina, said Serbs were not the only
 ones being killed. But he said the rate of killings of Serbs--who
 numbered about 200,000 or about 10% of the population before the
 conflict--was far higher than among the ethnic Albanian majority.
 More than 172,060 people, mostly Serbs and Gypsies, had fled Kosovo, a
 southern province of Serbia, since the Yugoslav government signed a peace
 agreement with NATO, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for
 Refugees reported in Belgrade on July 26.

 During the war, Serbian forces drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic
 Albanians from their homes in a campaign of killing, looting and
 harassment. Now, many Serbs accuse the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army and
 those affiliated with it of carrying out revenge killings against their
 Serbian enemies and their families.

 Wooldridge refused to discuss the execution-style killings in more
 detail, including the exact number and location of bodies found.

 However, he said the bodies of seven slain Serbs were found within
 several hundred yards of one another at a popular trash dumping site over
 a three-week period last month. He said most of the seven were bound at
 the hands, blindfolded and shot in the back of the head.

 "I think it would be difficult at this point to say that there's an
 ethnic Albanian death squad going around committing these murders,"
 Wooldridge said. "It could be there are several groups going around
 committing murders in the same way, perhaps even exchanging weapons."

 He said that he is aware of anecdotal evidence of similar killings
 elsewhere in the province but that he cannot comment on crimes outside
 his area of responsibility.

 Neither U.N. officials nor officials from the KLA could be reached
 late Tuesday, as the city was in a blackout for several hours, and
 neither conventional nor cellular telephone service was functioning.
 Hashim Thaci, the KLA's political leader, has denied that his group is
 involved in such slayings, and he has called for an end to the killings.
 Some of the killings seemed even more vicious than the execution-style
 slayings.

 On Monday night, in one of five killings in Pristina, an elderly
 Serbian woman had her head held under water in a bathtub until she
 drowned. Her hands were tied and she was gagged, Wooldridge said.

 "You can't tell me they had to do that," he said. "She needed a cane
 to walk. She's not going to be the strongest woman in the world."

 Within hours after the attack, Wooldridge said, a young ethnic
 Albanian couple had moved into her apartment.

 The new details about the scope of the revenge killings come on the
 heels of the mass slaying of 14 Serbian farmers in a small village about
 10 miles south of here. Five ethnic Albanians were arrested in the
 killings. Two are still being held. Wooldridge said his investigators
 have assembled strong evidence against the suspects, including weapons
 and ammunition seized from their homes that appear to match those used in
 the attack.

 Still, the violence is taking a toll on peacekeepers' efforts to
 establish a multiethnic society in a region beset by conflict. Most Serbs
 who live in cities or ethnically mixed villages are afraid to leave their
 houses.

 Last weekend, 450 Serbs were led from their village by U.S. troops in
 the NATO-led Kosovo Force, or KFOR, because the villagers were afraid to
 stay and afraid to travel the road alone. Initially, it was believed that
 the families were bound for Serbia proper, but they are now thought to
 have settled in wholly Serbian villages in the surrounding area.

 "These are regrettable events," a KFOR press release said. "We hope
 that the people who have left will feel confident enough to return with
 the gradual buildup of peace and stability."

 British Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson, the commander of the peacekeeping
 forces, said in a recent interview that, ultimately, the answer lies not
 with NATO, but with changing people's attitudes.

 "What sort of a society is it when you've got to put a soldier on one
 side of an old lady to buy a loaf of bread? . . . What is true is that
 some Albanians--and I hope it's a very few--have behaved in a way that is
 too reminiscent of the people who just left," Jackson said.

 "No police force in the world can guarantee security," he said. "The
 answer to this kind of problem is to change the cycle of violence in the
 Balkans. KFOR is not the answer."

 Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is trying to force those who
 fled to go back to a territory that Serbs consider the crucible of their
 culture.

 Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije, who told anti-Milosevic protesters
 on Monday that the Yugoslav president should stand trial on war crimes
 charges, says Serbs are now the victims of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo.

 While Orthodox clerics are "well aware" of the "horrendous crimes"
 committed before the war ended, Artemije said, the current attacks
 against Serbs are "much greater a crime" because they were perpetrated
 during peacetime.

 "Now the Albanians are oppressing Serbs and are committing the same
 crimes against Serbs and non-Albanian communities which were committed
 against the Kosovo Albanians in the time of Milosevic's regime," Artemije
 wrote to Jackson and Bernard Kouchner, the U.N.'s top representative in
 Kosovo.

 * * *
 Times staff writers Paul Watson in Belgrade and Valerie Reitman in
 Pristina contributed to this report.

 * *  >>

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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 16:11:38 -0400
From: Bob Tiller <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Business Leaders Live

Duane,

I am planning to be at the luncheon on Thursday, so I will hope to see you
there.

The usual format is that they take written questions after the speech.   Is
there a nice soft question that Ben would like me to ask, so he can get an
answer on the record?

Bob Tiller,
PSR





Duane Peterson wrote:

>         Reducing Nuclear Arsenal to be proposed at National Press Club
> Speech Thursday
>
>         CSPAN and National Public Radio plan to simulcast live the speech
> Ben Cohen will deliver at the National Press Club's Newsmakers Luncheon in
> Washington, D.C. this Thursday at 1pm Eastern Time.
>
>         The co-founder of Ben&Jerry's was invited to discuss the efforts of
> the non-profit group he founded, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
> (www.moveourmoney.org and www.businessleaders.org).
>
>         The group's 500 business executives are conducting a marketing
> campaign designed to increase federal funding for state and local programs
> that help kids, by cutting wasteful Pentagon spending identified by the
> admirals and generals who advise the business group.
>
>         Nuclear weapons are among the programs suggested for deep cuts by
> the group, and will be  specifically targeted by Ben in his Press Club
> speech.
>
>         Duane Peterson
>         Chief of Stuff
>         Ben&Jerry's
>
> "The Times, working with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a
> nonpartisan organization of more than 500 executives and retired military
> officers, invited commentators from around the country to discuss federal
> spending priorities."
>         -- The Los Angeles Times, introducing the entire op-ed page it
> dedicated to our group's agenda August 2, 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.


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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 19:17:28 -0700
From: "David Crockett Williams" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) India Nukes

From: S. P. Udayakumar <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail] <[e-mail]>
Subject: Indian Nukedom at Work
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 4:09 PM

Communalism Watch and Governance Monitor
August 17, 1999
http://www.saccer.org

Sorry for putting it crudely!  Millions of Indians cannot shit with
dignity and here are the Chidambarams, Subrahmanyams and other nuke
parasites developing grandiose killing tools, doctrines and documents!

[1]  India Can Make Neutron Bomb: Chidambaram
[2] Indian Nuclear Doctrine Document
[3] WSJ Report on Neutron Bomb
[4] Nuclear Winer: A Summary

::::[1]::::
The Hindu, Tuesday, August 17, 1999

                India can make neutron bomb: Chidambaram

                MUMBAI, AUG. 16. India has the capacity to build a
                neutron bomb, according to the Atomic Energy
                Commission (AEC) Chairman, Mr. Rajagopala Chidambaram.


                Indian nuclear scientists, after the Pokhran-II tests,
                can design and make nuclear weapons of ``any type or
                size'', he told PTI in an interview here.

                The neutron bomb, a battlefield weapon, is essentially
                a low- yield thermo-nuclear device where the neutron
                producing fusion process dominates over the
                fissiontrigger. It is not difficult to build such a
                device, according to Mr. Chidambaram.

                India, which exploded a hydrogen bomb and four fission
                devices under the Thar desert in May last year and
                declared a moratorium on further tests, has not
                stopped its nuclear weapons research, according to top
                officials of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

                ``The research is on. We have not stopped (it),'' said
                Mr. Anil Kakodkar, Director of BARC where the test
                devices were designed and built. He, however, declined
                to elaborate.

                India is free to carry out sub-critical tests to
                further refine the weapon codes, but authorities were
                unwilling to comment if such studies are being done at
                BARC.

                According to Mr. Krishna Gopala Iyengar, former chief
                of AEC, sub-critical studies would require expensive
                facilities.

                Meanwhile, authorities said analysis of rock samples
                obtained from drilling at all the five holes at the
                Pokhran test site has now been completed.

                Mr. Chidambaram said the analysis has established
                beyond doubt that the hydrogen bomb did explode
                producing an yield as per design. (There were some
                reports in the West that only the fission trigger
                worked and that secondary fusion fuel failed to
                explode.)

                Mr. Chidambaram said the samples carried evidence of
                reactions caused by 14 million volt neutrons. ``Such
                high energy neutrons are produced only in the fusion
                process,'' he said. ``This is a proof that our
                hydrogen bomb did explode.''

                According to Mr. Chidambaram, the yield obtained from
                the sample analysis (60-kiloton) also tallied with
                that obtained from seismic data. Copyrights c 1999 The
                Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc.

::::[2]::::
The Hindu, Wednesday, August 18, 1999

                'Create credible n-arsenal'
                By Our Special Correspondent

                NEW DELHI, AUG. 17. India's minimum
                nuclear deterrent should be based on a
                survivable triad of land, air and sea-based
                systems and the nuclear trigger should be in the
                hands of the Prime Minister, according to the
                draft Indian nuclear doctrine document.

                The draft, which was released by the National Security
                Adviser, Mr. Brajesh Mishra, for countrywide debate
                and discussion reconciles three key considerations.

                First, the size of India's atomic arsenal has to be
                kept at a minimum. Simultaneously, an effective
                capacity to deter a nuclear attack based on a
                ``credible'' nuclear arsenal should be created.
                Finally, the national atomic stockpile should be made
                ``survivable'' at all costs.

                For instance, India should have enough nuclear reserve
                forces to carry out effective retaliation, in case
                deterrence fails and the country is subjected to a
                nuclear attack. In fact, the Indian forces should
                carry out ``punitive retaliation'' with nuclear
                weapons to inflict unacceptable damage on the
                aggressor, if subjected to a nuclear strike.

                The draft reiterates that India should not initiate a
                nuclear strike and neither should it resort to the use
                or the threat of use of nuclear weapons against States
                which did not possess nuclear weapons, or were not
                aligned with nuclear weapon States.

                The ``consensus document'' combined the views of 27
                members of the National Security Advisory Board. The
                exercise was undertaken under the chairmanship of the
                strategic analyst, Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, who heads the
                board. ``It is with a sense of responsibility,
                transparency and restraint that we approach the
                nuclear doctrine,'' Mr. Mishra said.

                A nuclear deterrent could restrain conventional
                engagements, Mr. Mishra said, adding that the Kargil
                crisis showed that the presence of nuclear weapons
                with both sides prevented undue escalation.

                As expected, the draft does not quantify the size of
                the ``minimum deterrent''. ``This is a dynamic concept
                related to the strategic environment, technological
                imperatives and the needs of national security. The
                actual size, components, deployment and employment of
                nuclear forces will be decided in the light of these
                factors.''

                As the fundamental purpose of the Indian arsenal is
                deterring the use and the threat of use of nuclear
                weapons by any State or entity against India and its
                forces, credibility and ``effectiveness'' of its
                nuclear weapons is vital. Credibility, according to
                the draft, can be achieved when an adversary knows
                that ``India can and will retaliate with sufficient
                nuclear weapons to inflict destruction and punishment
                that the aggressor will find unacceptable if nuclear
                weapons are used against India and its forces''.

                The Board's recommendation that the Indian deterrent
                should be based on a ``triad of aircraft, mobile
                land-based missiles and sea-based assets'' is meant to
                ensure survivability.

                Analysts point out that besides keeping the nuclear
                arsenal widely dispersed, it gives room for a second
                strike capability through nuclear submarines armed
                with atomic weapons. The submarines, which are
                extremely difficult to target, are seen by specialists
                as fundamental to the survival of nuclear forces. Key
                countries, including Britain and France, have not
                subjected their nuclear submarines to arms reduction
                agreements.

                An effective nuclear chain of command is the second
                crucial element to ensure survivability. According to
                the paper, the Prime Minister is at the heart of the
                nuclear command and control establishment. The Prime
                Minister alone and his designated successor(s) should
                be authorised to order the release of nuclear weapons,
                it says. The command and control of nuclear and
                conventional weapons should also be kept separate.

                Copyrights c 1999 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet
                Initiatives Inc.

::::[3]::::
Date sent:        Tue, 17 Aug 1999 16:21:55 -0400 (EDT)
From:             Sreenath Sreenivasan <[e-mail]>

The Wall Street Journal Aug. 17, 1999, Page A16

India Says It Can Make Neutron Bomb As Result of Tests Performed Last
Year By Jonathan Karp

NEW DELHI -- A month after China disclosed that it has developed a
neutron bomb, India said it also can manufacture the thermonuclear
weapon.

Rajagopala Chidambaram, one of the scientists who planned India 's
nuclear tests in May 1998, said in an interview published yesterday by
the Press Trust of India news agency that it isn't difficult to
produce a neutron bomb, a fusion weapon that kills people but isn't
intended to destroy buildings. The five underground tests last year
have enabled India 's nuclear scientists to design and build nuclear
weapons of "any type or size," said Mr. Chidambaram, who is chairman
of the government's Atomic Energy Commission.

His disclosure comes at a time of muscle-flexing between India and
fellow nuclear power Pakistan. The rivals fought recently in disputed
Kashmir, and last week, India shot down a Pakistani reconnaissance
plane near their border. Sunday, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
who faces elections in a few weeks, touted India 's military might.

But the real target of the neutron-bomb remarks appears to be China,
long the focus of India 's drive to develop advanced nuclear weapons
and ballistic missiles. While refuting allegations in a U.S.
congressional report that Beijing stole U.S. nuclear-weapon designs
and technology, China admitted in July that it had developed a neutron
bomb on its own.

Beijing's revelation, followed by its test of a ballistic missile that
can reach any target in India , aroused debate in New Delhi's security
establishment about China's technological advantage. And this may have
prompted Mr. Chidambaram's remarks, said Brahma Chellaney, professor
of security studies at the Center for Policy Research, an independent
think tank in New Delhi.

The remarks signal India 's race for technological prestige rather
than an imminent stockpiling of neutron bombs. "Though it's
technologically feasible, a neutron bomb isn't anything that the
military is excited about," said C. Uday Bhaskar, deputy director of
the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, a government-sponsored
think tank in New Delhi. "The priority is building a certain degree of
credibility in our minimum nuclear deterrent."

In the Press Trust of India interview, Mr. Chidambaram didn't say
whether India had developed a neutron bomb or intended to produce one.
He couldn't be reached for comment.

After detonating five atomic warheads, including one thermonuclear
device, last year, India announced a moratorium on nuclear tests.
India is under pressure from the U.S. to sign a nuclear test-ban
treaty and define the size of its nuclear-deterrent force as well as
the doctrine for using it. A national security advisory board has
submitted recommendations to the prime minister, a panel member said.
But he declined to comment on whether the panel believes neutron bombs
should be included in India's arsenal.

::::[4]::::
Date sent:        Mon, 16 Aug 1999 15:12:32 -0400 (EDT)
From:             David Morgan <[e-mail]>

Greetings:
The Trident and Typhoon missile firing submarine quietly
go about their business, sub-critical tests continue,
threshold nuclear powers make strenuous efforts to catch
up with the nuclear powers and Y2K reminds us of the
hair-trigger N-situation we continue to live under.

So it is useful to warn complacent people that nuclear
winter will be the probable result of even a medium sized
nuclear war.

This summary of Nuclear Winter and its effects is designed
to fit on one page for easy copying. It is suitable for
use in schools. If anyone thinks that the case for N-Winter is
over-stated or un-proved, let them read Moisseyev's quote below.

Best wishes,
David Morgan

                            *****
                        NUCLEAR WINTER
                A Summary by David Morgan, June 1999
                               for
                 Veterans Against Nuclear Arms

"In such extraordinarily dangerous situations no risk can be taken and
one should consider the worst possible outcome. This is a key
principle of a systems analysis of such situations."(Moisseyev, 1986)

 Firestorms following a major nuclear war would produce clouds of
dust, smoke and soot which would shroud the entire earth, obscuring
most of the heat and light from the sun, causing temperatures to drop
and the climate of the entire earth to be plunged into a long-lasting,
disastrous freeze-up, known as Nuclear Winter.  This catastrophic
result could destroy civilization as we know it; at worst it could
extinguish the human race. This consequence of nuclear war was first
discovered in 1983.   The N-arms race nevertheless continued at full
speed. "Nuclear Winter that would wipe out all life on earth, is all
the more reason to continue President Ronald Reagan's weapons
build-up."  (Richard Perle, US Assistant Secretary of Defense, 15
March 1985)  Today, in 1999  the world's reduced nuclear arsenals
could still cause nuclear winter many times over.  For 23 years
(1960-83) N-Winter was possible but had not been discovered.  What
other catastrophic effects of N-war remain undiscovered?

CAUSES:
1. Firestorms Over Cities:(25 gm/sq cm combustible) These would result
in complete combustion and a soot density 100 times that over forest
fires. 2. Fires Over Forests:(2gm/sq cm combustible) 1 million km2 of
burning forest would produce 4 billion tons of  soot, even if only 20%
of the combustibles burnt.  Soot from forest fires alone would halve
the sunlight reaching the earth's surface.

THRESHOLD:
"100-150 megatons ...would still be...enough to put an end to human
life on earth."(Moisseyev, 1986) >From 12-36 megatons is normal
N-firepower for each of the U.S Navy's 18 Trident missile firing
submarines. EFFECTS: 1. Light:  Soot would shroud the world in
darkness. 2. Radiation:  Intensity would exceed lethal level over
immense areas. 3. Ozone Layer:  This would be almost completely
destroyed. 4. Poisonous Gases:  Massive burning of synthetic materials
in urban firestorms makes a toxic smog of carbon monoxide, oxides of
nitrogen, ozone, cyanides, dioxins and furans. 5. Storms:  Small drop
in ocean temperatures & big drop in land temperatures will result in
violent coastal storms. 6. Water Supply:  All fresh water will freeze.
 In the tropics temperatures will drop below freezing after 100 days.
7. Rain:  Lacking heat & convection there will be no  rain or snow, so
the soot will not be washed down and will clear very slowly as it
settles due to gravity alone. 8. Food Supply:  Lacking sun & rain, all
crops will fail. 9. Phytoplankton in the oceans:  Die without sunlight
(Ref.1, p.119) 10.Glacial Melting:  Above the soot cloud, temperatures
will be high.  As the cloud slowly settles, melting of high glaciers
and the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps will cause continent-wide
flooding. 11. Ultraviolet Spring:  Destruction of ozone layer will
expose surviving land plants & animals to lethal u-violet. 12. Worst
Case:  Return to the Proterozoic, the late Precambrian, before life
appeared on land.

SOURCES:
1. Peterson, Jeannie (ed)  "Aftermath: The Human & Ecological
Consequences of Nuclear War, Pantheon, New York, 1983 (Based on a
special issue of Ambio, Vol.II, nos 2,3, 1982.) 2. Turco, R.P., Toon,
A.B., Ackerman, T.P., Pollack, J.B., Sagan, C.(TTAPS), "The Climatic
Effects of Nuclear War," Scientific American, Aug 1984. 3.
Rowan-Robinson, Michael "Fire and Ice The Nuclear Winter," Longman,
Harlow UK, 1985. 4. Velikhov, Yevgeni (ed.) "The Night After...
Climatic and Biological Consequences of Nuclear War," Mir, Moscow,
1985. 5. U.S. National Research Council, "The Effects on the
Atmosphere of a Major Nuclear Exchange," 1985. 6. Moisseyev, Nikita
"Man, Nature and the Future of Civilization," Novosti, Moscow, 1986.



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

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 21:39:14 +0100
From: "Sally Light" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Business Leaders Live

Dear Duane,

Thanks to Ben & you!

Sally Light
Nuclear Program Analyst
Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)

- ----------
> From: Duane Peterson <[e-mail]>
> To: '[e-mail]'
> Subject: (abolition-usa) Business Leaders Live
> Date: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 3:18 PM
>
>     Reducing Nuclear Arsenal to be proposed at National Press Club
> Speech Thursday
>
>     CSPAN and National Public Radio plan to simulcast live the speech
> Ben Cohen will deliver at the National Press Club's Newsmakers Luncheon
in
> Washington, D.C. this Thursday at 1pm Eastern Time.
>
>     The co-founder of Ben&Jerry's was invited to discuss the efforts of
> the non-profit group he founded, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
> (www.moveourmoney.org and www.businessleaders.org).
>
>     The group's 500 business executives are conducting a marketing
> campaign designed to increase federal funding for state and local
programs
> that help kids, by cutting wasteful Pentagon spending identified by the
> admirals and generals who advise the business group.
>
>     Nuclear weapons are among the programs suggested for deep cuts by
> the group, and will be  specifically targeted by Ben in his Press Club
> speech.
>
>     Duane Peterson
>     Chief of Stuff
>     Ben&Jerry's
>
>
> "The Times, working with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a
> nonpartisan organization of more than 500 executives and retired military
> officers, invited commentators from around the country to discuss federal
> spending priorities."
>     -- The Los Angeles Times, introducing the entire op-ed page it
> dedicated to our group's agenda August 2, 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.

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

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #167
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