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abolition-usa-digest     Tuesday, August 24 1999     Volume 01 : Number 170




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

Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 08:35:50 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Project Abolition events

Karina et al, let us know what we can do to help with the Washington DC
"Wall of Denial" on November 9th.


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

              ***

     BAN AND BURY ALL RADIOACTIVE BOMBS
            * depleted uranium, fission, neutron *
About NucNews: http://prop1.org/nucnews/nucnews.htm


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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, 23 Aug 1999 08:40:08 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Michigan meeting in October?

Can someone please tell me if there is an Abolition 2000 meeting in Ann
Arbor in October?  Do you know the dates/locations?  I would like to attend
the entire session.  Hope there's a workshop on pending Congressional
legislation.  If not, would like to sponsor one.  Have some news and ideas
from the Hill.

Need to make arrangements for travel, so would appreciate any info.

Thanks!

Ellen Thomas
PROPOSITION ONE COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 27217, Washington, DC 20038 USA
202-462-0757 (phone) | 202-265-5389 (fax)
http://prop1.org | [e-mail]

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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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 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

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

Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 14:17:29 -0400
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) obscenity at National Atomic Museum

- -             Web posted Friday, August 6, 1999
                    5:20 a.m. CT

                    Atomic Museum defends
                    sale of 'Fat Man' bomb
                    earrings; Japanese
                    protest

                    By CHRIS ROBERTS
                    Associated Press Writer

                    ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Tiny silver replicas of the first
atomic
                    bombs, sold as earrings at the National Atomic Museum, are
                    stirring emotions in one of the Japanese cities that was
leveled by
                    an atomic blast during World War II.

                    The earrings are shaped like the "Little Boy" and "Fat
Man"
                    atomic bombs that were developed during the war at Los
                    Alamos under the Manhattan Project. They sell for $20 a
pair at
                    the Energy Department museum on Kirtland Air Force Base.

                    The bomb dubbed "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on
                    Aug. 6, 1945. Nagasaki was obliterated by Fat Man three
days
                    later. As many as 175,000 people were killed
immediately in
the
                    two attacks, according to museum exhibits. The Japanese
                    surrendered five days after the second bomb.

                    Members of the Japanese anti-nuclear group Gensuikyo found
                    the earrings and other items, including medallions that
                    commemorate the bombing missions over Japan, on the
                    museum's Web site.

                    "We're very angry," Gensuikyo spokesman Naomi Kishimoto
                    said in Hiroshima. "It's not the sort of thing you should
be
                    hanging from your ears or using to decorate your desk.
It's
                    unforgivable that (the) museum would sell through the
Internet
                    something that praises the unit that dropped the atomic
bomb."
                    Gensuikyo is known in English as the Japan Council Against
A
                    and H Bombs.

                    Despite the protest, museum director Jim Walther said
Thursday
                    the museum doesn't plan to stop selling the earrings.
"This
                    museum does not advocate war or the use of nuclear
weapons,"
                    Walther said.

                    Museum Store Manager Tony Sparks said he received 14 angry
                    e-mails ranging from well-reasoned arguments to
obscenity-laced
                    tirades. One e-mail promised thousands more.

                    Walther said items sold in the museum store reflect
history
and
                    present the work of dedicated scientists in the United
States.
                    And Sparks added that material in the shop advances the
                    argument that the bombings saved the lives of U.S. troops
as
                    well as pointing out the immorality of war.

                    The earrings, especially a matched set with one of each
bomb,
                    are the most popular item in the store, Sparks said.

                    But he also points to a book with black and white
photos of
vast
                    areas in the Japanese cities where buildings were
flattened. He
                    flips through a display of posters and picks out one
with a
quote
                    from physicist Albert Einstein: "It is my conviction that
killing
                    under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

                    "We're aware that it's sensitive," Sparks said. "We have
such a
                    high contingency of Japanese visitors, most of whom are
                    interested in hearing our side. We are careful not to
glorify it."

                    Visitors to the museum Thursday had a wide range of
reactions.
                    Lois Dove of South Fork, Colo., said she didn't blame the
                    Japanese for objecting to the earrings.

                    "It's not appropriate to have the earrings," Dove said.

                    "If I was Japanese, I would probably be very offended by
it,"
                    said Denise Skinner of Santa Barbara, Calif. "But I don't
think
                    they should be told to stop selling them."

                    Ben Parks of Amarillo, Texas, said he understands the
Japanese
                    reaction, but thinks the earrings should stay on the shelf
since
                    the bombs ended the war.

                    "I also understand the losses we'd have had if it weren't
for the
                    weapons," Parks said. "It goes back to a few people -
their
                    military leaders. The population of Japan didn't have
input
into
                    what was going on. There were innocent casualties and
victims."

                    Kishimoto still would like to see the items removed. "We
                    condemn their efforts to rationalize the atomic bombing by
                    saying that it saved many lives," Kishimoto said.

                    Even though Walther says the earrings will continue to be
sold at
                    the store, he said there is room for more of the Japanese
                    perspective. The museum is planning to move to a new
location
                    outside the Air Force base where people can come and go
                    without military security restrictions.



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.

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

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 12:05:43 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) GLOBAL DE-ALERTING FAX CAMPAIGN FROM SEPT 1 PREPARE TO FAX YELTSIN/CLINTON

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


APPEAL: THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THE WORLD BETWEEN NOW AND DECEMBER31

FROM SEPT 1,  FAX YELTSIN, CLINTON TO TAKE N-WEAPONS OFF ALERT.

PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, [phone],
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, [phone],

Dear All,

You will be getting many messages of this kind because this is possibly the
most important single issue that can ever come your way between now and the
next year.

Following this appeal there are two sample letters, one from FOE Australia
and one from Bob Tiller of PSR USA.

I urge you to act on them.

I am writing to urge you to fax Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton from Sept 1
onwards to take strategic nuclear weapons off alert before December, and to
ask that the de- alerting of strategic nuclear weapons be discussed at the
coming September 21 meeting of the G8.

This is of absolutely vital importance.   Getting 5000 nuclear missiles off
alert status before the Y2k bug plays havoc with their command and control
systems is just about the most important thing anyone can possibly do.

Arguably there is simply no other issue this important between now and
December/January.
It might  be literally a matter of survival.

Can you get this appeal and the two sample letters out to your networks as
fast as you can and ask them to fax it from September 1?

If people wish to customise from the two letters that is best.

It's important I think, to get it out as fast as possible, but ask people
to stick to the sept 1 date (or after).

Please try to fax from September 1 onwards, preferably not before.

Please use the fax numbers I have provided. The numbers here work. I've
just checked them.

Try and get everyone you know to do it.

If you are a large organisation please try and get all your members to do it.

Many thanks and may the fax gremlins smile on you!

John Hallam.


DRAFT MODEL LETTER TO YELTSIN AND CLINTON FOR GLOBAL FAX CAMPAIGN STARTING
SEPTEMBER 1

PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, [phone],

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, [phone],

Dear Presidents Yeltsin, and  Clinton,
I am writing to you to convey my extreme concern over the possibility that
Y2K -related problems in the computerised command, control, and monitoring
systems of nuclear forces and weapon systems, may give rise to an
unacceptable risk of accidental nuclear war, as a result of incorrect data
and miscalculation.  I therefore urge you to solve the problem by taking
your nuclear forces off alert, or  by standing them down.

I ask that standing down nuclear forces in view of the problems  posed by
the 'Millennium Bug', be a matter for urgent priority discussions at the G8
Summit in Berlin on Sept 21.  As well asY2K considerations, taking nuclear
weapons off alert will increase strategic stability and confidence, and
eliminate  the possibility of accidental nuclear war.

I would remind you that your two countries have some 5000 strategic nuclear
weapons that are able to be fired within a time span of 15-30 minutes.

This must never happen. Should it do so, not only would your two countries
cease to exist, but it is entirely possible that human life  and maybe all
life life on the planet, could be terminated.

Any risk of this happening at any time, Y2K or otherwise, no matter how
small, is unacceptable.

However, the Y2K problem adds another layer of uncertainty to the risk that
already exists.

Taking nuclear forces off alert was strongly recommended by the Canberra
Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in 1996, and a number of
resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly have urged that it be
done.

Taking nuclear weapons off alert and placing them in a state in which hours
to days rather than minutes or seconds would be required to make them
launch ready, would effectively eliminate the risk of accidental nuclear
war due to the Y2K computer problem.  It would also make impossible the
many non-Y2K related problems that have many times brought us to within
minutes of a possible nuclear exchange.

De-Alerting will cost you nothing, and can be done by a simple executive
order to stand down nuclear forces.

The UK has already altered its 'notice to fire' from minutes to days.

We/I urge you to do likewise.

The stakes involved far outweigh any considerations of national pride,
national interest, or even national security. Indeed, the immediate stakes
are so high, and the potential for global catastrophe so clear that
mutually verified de- alerting must now take precedence over all other
considerations.

Signed...
etc

>-------------------------------------------
>Dear Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton:
>
>The Cold War ended years ago, but the nuclear danger endures, menacing
>us all.  Thousands of nuclear weapons remain on high-alert in the United
>States and Russia.  Although both countries have announced their
>"de-targeting" of the other, that step is virtually meaningless when
>both countries keep their weapons on alert and maintain a
>launch-on-warning posture.
>
>Keeping nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert does not add to the
>security of either nation; indeed it makes all of us less secure.  You
>are well aware of the various occasions when Russia and the U.S. came
>close to launching nuclear weapons because of misunderstanding or poor
>data.  Removing the weapons from hair-trigger alert would eliminate the
>risk of hasty reaction.
>
>Therefore I urge you to lessen the nuclear danger by removing all
>nuclear weapons from high-alert.  This can be accomplished in a matter
>of weeks without treaty negotiation or ratification.
>
>This approach has worked before.  In 1991 President George Bush took the
>bold step of removing hundreds of U.S. nuclear weapons from high-alert
>status, and in response Mikhail Gorbachev did the same with hundreds of
>Soviet weapons.  Now we need similar courageous leadership to finish the
>process that they started.
>
>De-alerting takes on added urgency this year.  When January 1, 2000
>arrives, no one will know if all of the Y2K computer problems have been
>fixed.  Why court disaster by having nuclear warheads on hair-trigger
>alert when we do not know how the computers in the nuclear system will
>function?
>
>Last year the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a
>resolution which calls on the nuclear weapons states to de-alert their
>weapons.  It is wise counsel.  For the sake of our children and
>grandchildren, please de-alert all nuclear weapons now.
>
>Sincerely,





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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, 23 Aug 1999 22:27:01 -0700
From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Important article re: stockpile stewardship expansion/reorganization

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1news082099.htm     =20

Friday, August 20, 1999=20

Weapons Projects May Move=20
By John Fleck and Ian Hoffman
Journal Staff Writers

        The Department of Energy wants to shift key pieces of its nuclear
weapons workload from Los Alamos National Laboratory to bolster a sister =
lab in
California. =20

        The proposal moves some work from Los Alamos to Nevada, shifts a =
large
amount of plutonium and weapons maintenance now done at Los Alamos to Law=
rence
Livermore in California, and calls for a big new research complex at Sand=
ia
National Laboratories outside Albuquerque.

        The moves, collectively called the "Mega Strategy," are aimed at
balancing the workload at the department's major research and testing sit=
es to
ensure the right mix of skills is available in the future to maintain the
nuclear stockpile, said Energy Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Gil
Weigand, who is in charge of weapons research and development.

        The Livermore moves are aimed at giving scientists there handson
responsibility for nuclear weapons, rather than simply weaponsrelated bas=
ic
research, Weigand said in an interview Thursday.

        "You need a challenging workload where they are really touching t=
he
bomb," he said.  =20

        Weigand says the move is necessary to bolster the number of exper=
ienced
U.S. weapons workers.

        Nucleardisarmament advocates see the changes as a worrisome
retrenchment
of U.S. nuclearweapons work. The proposal seeks a dramatic increase in
explosive testing with plutonium and plutoniumlike metals.

        "It's clearly a huge expansion of stockpile stewardship and beyon=
d any
scenario of what might be needed to keep the arsenal in a safe condition,=
" said
Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation=
 in
Oakland, Calif.

        "For Los Alamos, this will mean more explosive tests with plutoni=
um and
more secret work at the plutonium facility," said Jay Coghlan, program di=
rector
for Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, a watchdog group in Santa Fe.

        The critics also say other nations will read this spreading aroun=
d of
weapons work as the latest sign that the United States wants to keep its
weapons indefinitely, rather than moving toward a smaller arsenal.
        "For other countries, expanding activities at the Nevada Test Sit=
e is
really offensive. It really flies in the face of what a test ban is all a=
bout,"
said John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers Committee on Nucle=
ar
Policy in New York.

        With no change from the current path, Lawrence Livermore's dwindl=
ing
handson work on nuclear devices jeopardizes its role in the nuclear weapo=
ns
complex, said Bob Peurifoy, a retired Sandia National Laboratories nuclea=
r
weapons designer.

        "If you go down that road, you're going to close Lawrence Livermo=
re
as a
device lab," said Peurifoy, who frequently works as an adviser to the Ene=
rgy
Department and who has been briefed on the proposed changes. "They've got=
 to
have something to put their hands on."

        Details of the proposal have leaked out of the department in piec=
es
over
the last month. But Weigand's interview Thursday marks the first public
acknowledgement by the department of the details and scope of the plan.

        Weigand said the plan, being developed as part of the Department =
of
Energy's Fiscal Year 2001 budget proposal, would ensure the labs are able=
 to do
needed refurbishment and modification of U.S. nuclear warheads after the =
turn
of the century.

        Few if any people would be moved when the work is moved, Weigand =
said.

        The Nevada Test Site would be the new home of Atlas, a $48.3 mill=
ion
machine under assembly at Los Alamos that would smash soda cansized targe=
ts
with massive jolts of electricity, yielding enormous pressures and temper=
atures
needed to study how nuclear weapons work.  =20
       =20
        Weigand said moving Atlas to Nevada would free up Los Alamos to
focus on
hydrodynamic radiography, a crucial technique used by nuclear weapons
designers. Scientists fire Xrays into exploding shells of high explosive =
and
plutoniumlike metals. That lets scientists check and refine the operation=
 of
"primaries," the initial Abomb triggers for thermonuclear weapons. Weigan=
d
wants a more aggressive schedule of the tests at Los Alamos.

        Part of the tests involve a topsecret project, codenamed Appaloos=
a.
They
employ an exotic metal, plutonium242, that can be imploded in bomb shapes
without undergoing an explosive nuclear chain reaction. This gives scient=
ists
Xray movies of fullscale weapons tests that never go "nuclear."

        Moving plutonium work to Livermore will give Los Alamos more spac=
e at
its plutonium facility for the Appaloosa work.

        At the same time, Los Alamos would build one of the world's 10 mo=
st
powerful proton accelerators to test out a new kind of hydrodynamic
radiography. Scientists want more and higher quality pictures at more ang=
les of
exploding triggers. For a future machine, the Advanced Hydrotest Facility=
, they
think the answer might be to surround triggers in multiple proton beams a=
nd
Xrays, all delivering splitsecond pictures. Weapons designers can use the=
se
pictures as they do today, to verify the accuracy of weapons codes that
simulate an exploding nuclear weapon.   But critics inside and outside of=
 the
weapons labs wonder about the prudence  and the cost  of transferring wor=
k away
from those most experienced at it.

        =93Moving Los Alamos work to Nevada doesn't make any sense from c=
ost or
technical standpoint," said Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group, a
disarmament organization in Santa Fe. "It's creating a new lab in the des=
ert."

        Weigand would not say how much the moves would cost, but said the
amount
was "not significant." And he argues that weapons designers at Los Alamos=
 are
being stretched thin by their responsibility for maintaining weapons.

        Department of Energy policy calls for the lab that designed a wea=
pon
system to be responsible for regularly taking a few out of the stockpile =
and
tearing them apart, looking for signs of deterioration.

        Los Alamos is responsible for five nuclear warhead types, while
Livermore is responsible for three.

        Weigand said the workload was "exhausting" the Los Alamos weapons
designers. As a result, he's proposing shifting responsibility for one of=
 the
weapons, the W80 cruise missile warhead, to Livermore.

        Sandia National Laboratories benefits from the proposal.   No maj=
or
programs are leaving the Albuquerque lab, which is responsible for the
electronic systems and other nonnuclear components in nuclear weapons.

        But Sandia will get a $300 million complex of buildings to centra=
lize
research into computer circuits and microscopic machines. =20

[Sidebar]

DOE PROPOSAL

The Department of Energy's proposal to shift workload among its nuclear w=
eapons
research and testing sites:=20

*Gives an unknown portion of Los Alamos' job inspecting plutonium pits to=
 its
sister lab, Lawrence Livermore in Livermore, Calif. This $7.9 millionayea=
r job,
called pit surveillance, is a linchpin of maintaining aging U.S. nuclear
weapons. Pits are hollow, eggshaped shells of radioactive plutonium the s=
ize of
a grapefruit. When crushed by high explosives, they become tiny Abombs th=
at
touch off the hydrogen fuel in thermonuclear weapons. Scientists fear plu=
tonium
and its highexplosive shell is vulnerable to aging. DOE wants to send pit
surveillance to Livermore to give that lab more "handson" work with pluto=
nium
components. At Los Alamos, about 30 people inspect about 15 pits a year.=20
*Sends two Los Alamos research machines to Nevada. The prize is Atlas, a =
$48.5
million machine that uses electrical power equivalent to 100,000 lightnin=
g
bolts to crush a soda cansize "target." Los Alamos has spent $2 million s=
o far
on Atlas, mostly refurbishing a building. Under the proposal, Atlas' 80fo=
ot
ring of capacitors would have to be disassembled at Los Alamos, reassembl=
ed and
tested at the Nevada Test Site at unknown additional cost. Atlas targets=20
typically lead, tungsten and copper  are standins for plutonium and urani=
um in
weapons.=20

*Makes Los Alamos the nation's center for hydrodynamic radiography. It's =
a
technique for nuclear weapons designers to refine and check the operation=
 of
nuclear weapons by detonating mock weapons, with inert materials substitu=
ted
for their explosive plutonium. Xrays of the blasts allow scientists to st=
udy
the results.=20

*Builds one of the world's 10 most powerful proton accelerators at Los Al=
amos
to try out a new technique in weapons testing. The new accelerator at Los
Alamos would operate at 50 Giga electron volts, about 60 times the power =
of the
lab's current accelerator. Scientists want to try shooting the proton bea=
m
through exploding nuclear primaries from multiple angles in a future mach=
ine
called the Advanced Hydrotest Facility.=20

*Builds a $300 million microelectronics complex at Sandia to develop comp=
onents
for refurbishing aging U.S. nuclear weapons. =20


Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Albuquerque Journal
Call the Journal: 5058233800




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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: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 18:53:40 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) SEPT 1 START GLOBAL DE-ALERTING FAX CAMPAIGN

John Hallam
=46riends of the Earth Sydney,
17 Lord street, Newtown, NSW, Australia,
=46ax(61)(2)9517-3902 ph (61)(2)9517-3903

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


APPEAL: THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THE WORLD BETWEEN NOW AND DECEMBER31

=46ROM SEPT 1,  FAX YELTSIN, CLINTON TO TAKE N-WEAPONS OFF ALERT.

PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, [phone],
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, [phone],

Dear All,

You will be getting many messages of this kind because this is possibly the
most important single issue that can ever come your way between now and the
next year.

=46ollowing this appeal there are two sample letters, one from FOE Australia
and one from Bob Tiller of PSR USA.

I urge you to act on them.

I am writing to urge you to fax Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton from Sept 1
onwards to take strategic nuclear weapons off alert before December, and to
ask that the de- alerting of strategic nuclear weapons be discussed at the
coming September 21 meeting of the G8.

This is of absolutely vital importance.   Getting 5000 nuclear missiles off
alert status before the Y2k bug plays havoc with their command and control
systems is just about the most important thing anyone can possibly do.

Arguably there is simply no other issue this important between now and
December/January.
It might  be literally a matter of survival.

Can you get this appeal and the two sample letters out to your networks as
fast as you can and ask them to fax it from September 1?

If people wish to customise from the two letters that is best.

It's important I think, to get it out as fast as possible, but ask people
to stick to the sept 1 date (or after).

Please try to fax from September 1 onwards, preferably not before.

Please use the fax numbers I have provided. The numbers here work. I've
just checked them.

Try and get everyone you know to do it.

If you are a large organisation please try and get all your members to do it=
=2E

Many thanks and may the fax gremlins smile on you!

John Hallam.


DRAFT MODEL LETTER TO YELTSIN AND CLINTON FOR GLOBAL FAX CAMPAIGN STARTING
SEPTEMBER 1

PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, [phone],

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, [phone],

Dear Presidents Yeltsin, and  Clinton,
I am writing to you to convey my extreme concern over the possibility that
Y2K -related problems in the computerised command, control, and monitoring
systems of nuclear forces and weapon systems, may give rise to an
unacceptable risk of accidental nuclear war, as a result of incorrect data
and miscalculation.  I therefore urge you to solve the problem by taking
your nuclear forces off alert, or  by standing them down.

I ask that standing down nuclear forces in view of the problems  posed by
the 'Millennium Bug', be a matter for urgent priority discussions at the G8
Summit in Berlin on Sept 21.  As well asY2K considerations, taking nuclear
weapons off alert will increase strategic stability and confidence, and
eliminate  the possibility of accidental nuclear war.

I would remind you that your two countries have some 5000 strategic nuclear
weapons that are able to be fired within a time span of 15-30 minutes.

This must never happen. Should it do so, not only would your two countries
cease to exist, but it is entirely possible that human life  and maybe all
life life on the planet, could be terminated.

Any risk of this happening at any time, Y2K or otherwise, no matter how
small, is unacceptable.

However, the Y2K problem adds another layer of uncertainty to the risk that
already exists.

Taking nuclear forces off alert was strongly recommended by the Canberra
Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in 1996, and a number of
resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly have urged that it be
done.

Taking nuclear weapons off alert and placing them in a state in which hours
to days rather than minutes or seconds would be required to make them
launch ready, would effectively eliminate the risk of accidental nuclear
war due to the Y2K computer problem.  It would also make impossible the
many non-Y2K related problems that have many times brought us to within
minutes of a possible nuclear exchange.

De-Alerting will cost you nothing, and can be done by a simple executive
order to stand down nuclear forces.

The UK has already altered its 'notice to fire' from minutes to days.

We/I urge you to do likewise.

The stakes involved far outweigh any considerations of national pride,
national interest, or even national security. Indeed, the immediate stakes
are so high, and the potential for global catastrophe so clear that
mutually verified de- alerting must now take precedence over all other
considerations.

Signed...
etc

>-------------------------------------------
>Dear Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton:
>
>The Cold War ended years ago, but the nuclear danger endures, menacing
>us all.  Thousands of nuclear weapons remain on high-alert in the United
>States and Russia.  Although both countries have announced their
>"de-targeting" of the other, that step is virtually meaningless when
>both countries keep their weapons on alert and maintain a
>launch-on-warning posture.
>
>Keeping nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert does not add to the
>security of either nation; indeed it makes all of us less secure.  You
>are well aware of the various occasions when Russia and the U.S. came
>close to launching nuclear weapons because of misunderstanding or poor
>data.  Removing the weapons from hair-trigger alert would eliminate the
>risk of hasty reaction.
>
>Therefore I urge you to lessen the nuclear danger by removing all
>nuclear weapons from high-alert.  This can be accomplished in a matter
>of weeks without treaty negotiation or ratification.
>
>This approach has worked before.  In 1991 President George Bush took the
>bold step of removing hundreds of U.S. nuclear weapons from high-alert
>status, and in response Mikhail Gorbachev did the same with hundreds of
>Soviet weapons.  Now we need similar courageous leadership to finish the
>process that they started.
>
>De-alerting takes on added urgency this year.  When January 1, 2000
>arrives, no one will know if all of the Y2K computer problems have been
>fixed.  Why court disaster by having nuclear warheads on hair-trigger
>alert when we do not know how the computers in the nuclear system will
>function?
>
>Last year the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a
>resolution which calls on the nuclear weapons states to de-alert their
>weapons.  It is wise counsel.  For the sake of our children and
>grandchildren, please de-alert all nuclear weapons now.
>
>Sincerely,





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

Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 21:12:31 -0400
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Action Alert/President Clinton

Dear Friends,
Have you all seen the articles below which indicate a new Russian proposal
for cutting US and Russian arsenals to 1500 warheads? Please write a letter
to President Clinton, your Congressional reps, the press, urging that the
US forego its efforts to undercut the ABM treaty and take up the generous
Russian offer to cut arsenals to 1500 warheads.  Once that occurs we can
start negotiations on a treaty with all the nuclear weapons states for
abolition.  Peace, Alice

"Moscow Proposes Extensive Arms Cuts
U.S., Russia Confer Over Stalled Pacts"

By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 20, 1999; Page A29=20

MOSCOW, Aug. 19=97Russia proposed cutting nearly in half the number
of nuclear warheads that would be allowed under a prospective START
III treaty, a Russian official said today, as talks on the stalled arms
control
agreements resumed this week in Moscow.

President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed in June to try
to reanimate the long-dormant talks, including discussions on the
unratified
START II accord and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The first
round of discussions ended with renewed Russian warnings against
modifying the ABM treaty.

The 1993 START II treaty called for reducing the levels of nuclear
warheads to 3,500 to 3,000 on each side. But Russia's lower house of
parliament, the State Duma, has resisted ratifying it.

At a meeting in Helsinki in 1997, Clinton and Yeltsin nevertheless set as a
target for the next step, START III, a ceiling of 2,500 to 2,000 warheads
for each side. However, a Russian official said that Moscow this week
proposed slashing the maximum to 1,500 or fewer--a reduction that would
reflect the reality of Russia's strategic forces, which are declining
because
of obsolescence and lack of money to build new systems. Many experts
here think Russia's nuclear arsenal will decline to fewer than 1,000
warheads in the next decade.

Details of the latest Russian proposal were not provided, but it is likely
to
meet resistance in the Pentagon and among Republicans in Congress.
Moreover, the United States has urged Russia to ratify START II before
formal negotiations can begin on the follow-on treaty.

The ABM treaty also promises to incite a negotiating wrangle. The Clinton
administration is headed toward a decision next year about building a
missile defense system, and Yeltsin agreed to talk about possible changes
in the ABM treaty at a summit meeting earlier this year. However, Russia
has strongly resisted changes to the treaty, which limits the use of such
systems by each country.

Meanwhile, some Republicans in Congress want to scrap the treaty
altogether.

In a statement after this week's talks, the United States and Russia
reaffirmed that the ABM treaty is "the cornerstone of strategic stability"
and a Russian official openly warned against modifications.

Grigory Berdennikov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's security
and disarmament department, told reporters: "We see no variants which
would allow the United States to set up a national ABM system and still
preserve the ABM treaty and strategic stability in the world."

He said any modifications would undermine the START treaties and
expressed fear that "the arms race may spread into space."

If the United States deploys a missile defense system, he added, Russia
"will be forced to raise the effectiveness of its strategic nuclear armed
forces and carry out several other military and political steps to
guarantee
its national security under new strategic conditions."

He was not more specific, but cash-strapped Russia has barely been able
to afford one missile modernization program in recent years.=20

*****************************

"Russian Official Says U.S. Arms Talks Failed

Reuters, August 20, 1999=20

MOSCOW =97 A top Russian military official lashed out at the United States
Friday over what Moscow sees as a failed preliminary round of talks on a
new  nuclear weapons reduction treaty.=20

Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, who heads the Defense Ministry's
international  cooperation division, said the United States was dooming new
arms control talks  by seeking to change the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
(ABM) treaty.=20

"Perhaps the Foreign Ministry would put it more gently but there were no
results  from these talks,'' Ivashov told reporters after three days of
discussions on a new  START-3 treaty.=20

Ivashov, one of Russia's most hawkish officials on defense and foreign
policy,  reiterated Moscow's view that U.S. plans to modify the ABM Treaty
would wreck past arms control agreements.=20

"The ABM treaty is the basis on which all subsequent arms controls
agreements have been built,'' he said.=20

"To destroy this basis would be to destroy the entire process of nuclear
arms control.''=20

U.S. and Russian officials including Ivashov ended three days of Moscow
talks Thursday on a START-3 nuclear weapons reduction treaty and America's
wish to change the ABM agreement.=20

START-3 is aimed at adding to the cuts in nuclear arsenals due to be made
under START-2, signed in 1993 and which foresees a reduction in stockpiles
of each country to 3,500 warheads by 2003.=20

But even that 1993 treaty is still facing troubles as it has languished for
six years without the approval of Russia's Communist-dominated State Duma,
the lower house of parliament.=20

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee
called Ivashov's comments obstructionist given Russia's failure to approve
START-2.=20

"I want to know why they can't ratify the START-2 agreement,'' Ellen
Tauscher, a Democrat from California, told reporters in Moscow after a trip
to one of Russia's closed nuclear research cities.=20

Yet Ivashov said U.S. moves on a new ABM system overshadowed everything
else in arms control by seeking to present Russia with a fait accompli
about which it could do little.=20

"All this is done in violation of the obligations of the 1972 ABM treaty,''
he said.=20

The ABM treaty bans full systems designed to shoot down the other side's
missiles. But the United States now plans to build a similar shield against
missile programs it fears are being developed by countries such as Iran and
North Korea.=20

A U.S. embassy spokesman said Defense Secretary William Cohen would meet
his Russian counterpart Igor Sergeyev on September 13 or 14 in Moscow.=20

The next round of lower level talks on a START-3 deal are to continue in
September in Washington.=20

Ivashov said tensions with NATO over Yugoslavia made it more difficult to
reach agreement in arms control as well.=20

"The United States and NATO are trying to bring about their own order (in
Yugoslavia), at the same time shutting the governments of the region out of
the process,'' he said.=20

Russia strongly opposed NATO's March-June air strikes against its Slavic,
Orthodox brethren in Yugoslavia. Its peacekeepers have been working with
NATO forces on the ground in Kosovo since the end of the war but strains
remain.=20
=20
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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------------------------------

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #170
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