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abolition-usa-digest      Monday, January 3 2000      Volume 01 : Number 245




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

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 18:21:57 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Rocket experts fear false signal from Kremlin

December 27, 1999

 Rocket experts fear false
 signal from Kremlin

 By Rowan Scarborough
 THE WASHINGTON TIMES
(front page)


 As the century changes on Dec. 31, a
 computer-generated false signal could send rocketeers
 on quickly paced launch procedures for Russia's 756
 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

 Russia's deteriorating nuclear force is causing some experts
 to worry that a year-2000 computer glitch could spawn a
 false signal from early warning radars or satellites that the
 country is under attack.
Bruce Blair, a Brookings Institution analyst and leading
 authority on Russia's sprawling atomic arsenal, said the
 Strategic Rocket Force operates on a hair-trigger "launch on
 warning" doctrine.
As the century changes on Dec. 31, a
 computer-generated false signal could send rocketeers on
 quickly paced launch procedures for Russia's 756
 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
"They have about 2,000 weapons they can fire at the
 United States on a moment's notice, and the main option for
 firing them is 'launch on warning' at a time when their early
 warning network is deteriorating badly and at a time when
 they're suspicious of the West," said Mr. Blair, who as an Air
 Force officer in the 1970s manned a U.S. Minuteman missile
 silo.
Asked the odds of a false signal triggering an ICBM
 launch, Mr. Blair said, "It's clear that the likelihood of such an
 event is higher as a result of Y2K than it would otherwise. . .
 . [But] this should in all likelihood be a case of fail safe and
 not fail deadly."
The Pentagon, however, says there is no chance for a
 deadly miscalculation. The department has gone to
 extraordinary lengths diplomatically and financially to make
 sure New Year's Eve does not turn into a real-life "The Day
 After."
Its most visible guard against a calamity is the Center for
 Year 2000 Strategic Stability at Peterson Air Force Base,
 Colo. There, beginning Dec. 30, Russian and American
 officers will sit side by side at computer screens 24-hours a
 day. Their job: Monitor data from U.S. Space Command
 sensors, primarily long-range radars and satellites that detect
 the heat of a rocket blastoff.
"We really do not worry about Russia, missiles going off,
 or early-warning systems getting false reports or anything
 like that," said Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre. "We're
 confident that will not be the case."
Added Peter Verga, a Pentagon policy-maker, "If an early
 warning radar in Russia fails, we think it would be because
 the power went out, which is a local time-zone problem, and
 not because there's a fundamental problem within the
 system."
The department, which has spent $3.6 billion on
 year-2000 compliance, has invested $10 million in Russian
 weapons computers to ensure they don't misread the date
 rollover to 2000. Technicians also ridded the
 Moscow-Washington "hot line" of any potential bugs and
 installed backup telephone connections.
At Peterson, a missile launch anywhere in the world will
 be picked up by Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites
 and then tracked by radars.
Inside the Peterson center, officers will know the launch
 location and time, whether the rocket is an ICBM or space
 vehicle, the "threat fan" of potential targets and projected
 impact point.
The center has communications links to Moscow's
 warning center so Russian officers in the United States can
 verify any launch activity detected back home.
Space Command believes that by 4 p.m. (ET) Dec. 31 ù
 the millennium rollover in Moscow ù officials will know if
 Russia's warning system is glitch-free.
U.S. military forces are on Greenwich Mean Time and
 will enter the new century at 7 p.m. (ET).
"Once we get through the Moscow rollover, we'll have a
 very good indication of how Moscow has gotten through the
 rollover," said Maj. Perry Nouis, a spokesman for the U.S.
 Space Command. "We think it's going to be a quiet night for
 everybody. That's what our hope is."
Steven Zaloga, an expert on Russian strategic weapons
 and an aerospace consultant, said Moscow lost a large share
 of its ICBM-tracking radars with the breakaway of old Soviet
 republics. For example, Latvia recently shut down the radar
 on its soil.
Russia's other mechanism for monitoring U.S. missiles,
 the system of orbiting Oko infrared satellites, has wide gaps
 in coverage because Moscow lacks the money to replace
 them.
"Their early warning system has so many gaps and
 problems with it, one would hope they have the sense to
 appreciate that they may get some kind of false readings,"
 Mr. Zaloga said.
"Their command-and-control network is in very, very bad
 shape," he added.
"They don't have reliable missile early warning, which is
 really a critical element of command and control. The
 problem I see with the Russian government, it has a very
 unsophisticated and naive view of nuclear forces. The
 Russian military over the years has held a monopoly on
 distribution of information on nuclear forces."
Still, Mr. Zaloga concluded that the Russians exercise
 sufficient human control in Moscow to head off any rash
 decisions on New Year's Eve.
He said that in the early 1980s, shortly after the first Oko
 went into space, a satellite sent back a false-positive based on
 a heat signature from the sun appearing on the horizon.
 Fortunately, he said, a Russian officer dismissed the signal as
 bogus and did not initiate alert procedures.
"These missiles don't go off automatically," Mr. Zaloga
 said. "There is a human element in the Russian
 command-and-control system."
One thing is clear. Moscow and Washington approach the
 date switch amid worsening relations and mistrust.
Russia is particularly jittery over three developments:
 NATO expansion to its old Soviet borders; the air war on
 Serbia that showed the power and reach of American
 strategic bombers; and the U.S. intention to build a national
 defense against ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, Washington has protested Russia's brutal
 military crackdown in Chechnya and is growing concerned
 over Moscow's increasingly bellicose statements on nuclear
 weapons.
In Beijing earlier this month, Russian President Boris
 Yeltsin said President Clinton "has forgotten Russia is a great
 power that possesses a nuclear arsenal."
Last week, Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, chief of the
 country's Strategic Rocket Force, was quoted as saying,
 "Russia, for objective reasons, is forced to lower the
 threshold for using nuclear weapons. . . . "
Mr. Blair sees the acid atmosphere as possibly leading to
 nuclear miscalculation. He also sees shortfalls in Pentagon
 planning.
For example, at the Peterson year-2000 center, Russian
 officers will not see the raw data that pours into the
 top-secret national warning center at Cheyenne Mountain 12
 miles away. Instead, they will view processed signals.
The arrangement raises a dicey scenario. If Moscow's
 system says it is under attack, who do the Russians believe?
 Their own data or assurances from an American air base?
"The sole point of contact between the two militaries will
 be here at Peterson to make sure that no one in either country
 operates in a vacuum," Maj. Nouis said.
Said Mr. Blair, "As far as I can tell, we have fixed the
 Y2K problems with our nuclear forces. The Russians have
 not. They have admitted they are behind schedule. . . . This
 Y2K center is just a Band-Aid that diverts attention from the
 deeper problem of deterioration of Russian control over their
 nuclear arsenal"
Peter Pry's book, "War Scare: Russia and America on the
 Nuclear Brink," documents the poor state of the old Soviet
 arsenal. One would expect him to sound the alarm over the
 looming 2000 date change. But he's not.
"A lot of people on the left and right have really hyped the
 Y2K thing for different ulterior motives," Mr. Pry said. "I
 think it's been much exaggerated, the dangers of an electronic
 glitch, something going radically wrong with their computer
 system . . . It's hard for me to imagine a false attack
 happening."
Mr. Pry, a staffer on the House Armed Services
 Committee, said one prospect does worry him: how will the
 Russian generals react if an early-warning radar blacks out?
"That could be dangerous," he said. "Then you have the
 general staff wondering, why did it black out. 'Is this the first
 wave of attack?' "
Mr. Pry said year-2000 pessimists point to a 1995
 incident as evidence of how Russia's weakening nuclear
 control could produce a fatal mistake.
In January of that year, Russian nuclear forces went on
 alert after the launch of a Norwegian weather rocket. Some
 Russians initially misinterpreted the flight as a U.S. submarine
 ballistic missile fired as the first stage of an all-out attack.
But rather than viewing the incident as a precursor to
 year-2000, Mr. Pry said it is a better indication of Russian
 mistrust toward the West.
"There was no mechanical failure or computer failure,"
 said the ex-CIA analyst. "It was a human failure."


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

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 18:42:27 +1000
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Will there still be 5000 warheads on alert after Dec 31?

If you read the item on the front page of the Washington Post, recently
posted to the various lists, you will surely want to let US Secretary of
Defence Willam S. Cohen, and Presidents Yeltsin and Clinton know how you
feel about having 5000 nuclear weapons on hairtrigger alert over the Y2K
rollover.

And if as is to be hoped, nothing at all happens over the year end
rollover, there will STILL be 5000 nuclear warheads on hairtrigger alert.

The oldest, largest, most complex, and previously least Y2K compliant
computer systems in the world perform command, communications, control, and
intelligence for nuclear weapons systems, and  even without Y2K there have
been a series of frightening near- misses.

These systems will only experience the rollover some 9-18 hours after
Australia does.
So new years day could be nervous, at least for those of us who think of
such things.

Sure, the Pentagon say they have spent $3.6billion to make their nuclear
combat command, communication, and control systems Y2K compliant.

Sure, the US and Russia have established a joint Y2K 'Strategic Stability
Centre' next to the Cheyyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado.

And it is important - indeed crucial - that they have done this.

However, we hope they have by now managed to fix the hotlines set up during
the cold war, and discovered to be non Y2K compliant in September.

If nuclear weapons could not be immediately launched, then not only over
the nervous Y2K rollover period, when US and Russian officers are going to
EXPECT false alerts, blank screens, and communication blackouts, but at any
other time when also false alerts have happened, decision makers would
never be forced into the situation in which they have to decide whether to
blow up the world in five minutes, perhaps at 3am in the morning when very
much the worse for wear after new years drinkies.

The best  gift Clinton or Yeltsin can give the world is to do as two
resolutions passed by the United Nations General Assembly a year ago with
massive majorities, and another two passed this year with massive
majorities, two resolutions passed by the Australian Senate and  one
resolution passed unanimously by the European Parliament have reccommended
- - to take nuclear weapons off hairtrigger alert and place them in a status
in which launch on warning is no longer possible.

A letter signed by 500 global environmental organisations, arms control
groups, religious bodies, NGOs, and Parliamentarians asking for nuclear
weapons to be taken off alert for the new year was faxed to Yeltsin and
Clinton some days ago. It will be faxed again on 29th or 30th.

Clinton, Cohen, and Yeltsin have now been recieving an awful lot of faxes
and phonecalls asking them to take missiles off alert.

Ask President Clinton, President Yeltsin, and their secretaries and
ministers for defence (Cohen and Sergeyev) to do this.

If you have access to a fax machine, a single page A4 fax even to the
Kremlin should cost you round a dollar. (public fax facilities charge an
arm and a leg so don't bother with them).

The best fax is handwritten, not typed.

Do it now - It's Christmas Eve tomorrow (or it is here in Sydney).

You can fax for free on: http://www.fax4free.com

You can fax Clinton on [phone]
You can fax US defence secy Cohen on 1-703-695-1149
You can fax Yeltsin and Sergeyev on [phone].

There are sample letters below.
You should shorten them and use your own words.
You don't need to write anything near as long as this. Use what you want of
these sample letters in your own way, and preferably, handwrite don't type.


1) SAMPLE LETTER TO COHEN/CLINTON
(Please customise and shorten)

TO:
WILLIAM COHEN, US SECRETARY OF DEFENCE, [phone],

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON,  WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, US,  [phone],
[phone].

Dear President Clinton and Secretary for Defence Cohen,

I am writing  to urge your administration to take US nuclear forces off
'hairtrigger alert' even if only during the Y2K rollover period, to ask
that any false alarms or 'near misses' over the Y2K rollover and at any
other time be reported publicly, and to ask that the Y2K strategic
stability centre's operations be extended preferably indefinitely but at
least till May.

There is little time to act, and an immediate decision to place nuclear
weapons in a status in which immediate launch is impossible is essential to
ensure global stability.

As you will be aware, the European Parliament recently voted to ask you and
President Yeltsin to do as the UK has already done, and de-alert nuclear
weapons.

De-alerting of nuclear forces was strongly recommended by the Canberra
Commission in 1996 and then by the Tokyo Forum,  as a way to develop
strategic stability and build trust between the US and Russia. It has also
been incorporated into last year's  and  this years text of the New Agenda
Resolution in the UN General Assembly. It has also been reccommended by a
resolution specifically on the subject passed by last years General
Assembly and by this years First Committee on Reduction of Nuclear Dangers.
In addition it has been the subject of two resolutions passed by the
Australian Senate on 12 August and 20 September, and finally it has been
clearly requested by the European Parliament. It is also the subject of
congressional resolution H.Con Res177 put by Edward Markey, and most
recently, the City of Berkeley has asked for it.

De-Alerting and the establishment of the Y2K strategic stability centre are
not in competition with each other.  Indeed, we urge strongly that the
strategic stability centres operations be extended indefinitely.

Reductions in the number of weapons, the establishment of shared early
warning centers and de-alerting are all  vital to the reduction of tension
and the establishment of strategic stability.

This is particularly the case in view of the uncertainties posed by the
millennium date change (Y2K).

As you are well aware, the largest and oldest computer system complexes in
the world are those that control nuclear weapons systems.

The very nature of the Y2K problem makes it impossible to be sure
everything has been fixed until well into the new year.

Russia has, until recently, made little effort to even acknowledge the Y2K
problem, let alone fix it. It is therefore quite possible that Russian
computerized control systems are not Y2K compliant and that they will
experience widespread failures during the Y2K rollover period.

Even more disquieting is the fact that that the Russians have constructed
the system known as 'Perimeter', or the 'dead hand'. This system seems to
include additional ways in which Y2K failure might lead to an accidental
launch.

The establishment of a Y2K strategic stability center in Colorado is
certainly an advantageous move and an absolutely essential one, but it does
not entirely remove the danger of an accidental launch of nuclear
weapons.

The fact that the Center is scheduled, as far as we the public are aware,
to come into operation only on December 27th, four days prior to the
rollover, is far from reassuring. A four day delay will render it useless.

Similarly, the center itself will depend on the availability of
ultra-reliable hotlines between it and Moscow. The  Y2K vulnerabilities
recently discovered in six of the seven hotlines on which US/Russian
communications depends, are also cause for deep concern.

If nuclear weapons are removed from a status in which they can be launched
within minutes, and placed in one which would require at least days to
launch, the risk of an accidental missile launch induced by Y2K or other
errors in command and control systems will be virtually eliminated.

This  has already been done by the UK, which has moved the 'notice to fire'
for its missile forces from minutes to days.

The United States is making a serious error in failing to consider
de-alerting.  Failure to take nuclear forces off hairtrigger alert over the
Y2K 'rollover' period is an error that has the potential of causing
unthinkable consequences.

The probability of this may be low, but it will never be zero as long as
nuclear forces remain on hair-trigger alert.  This will continue to be so
after the immmediate Y2K 'rollover' period.

In a previous administration, President Bush took strategic bomber forces
off alert. We urge you to do this with all US nuclear forces.

(SIGNED)
etc.

2) SAMPLE LETTER TO YELTSIN/DEFENCE MINISTER SERGEYEV
(Please customise and shorten)

PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, IGOR SERGEYEV, RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER,
[phone],

Dear Defence Minister Sergeyev and President Yeltsin,

I am writing to convey my deep concern that Y2K-related computer failures
in the command and control systems for nuclear weapons may lead to an
accidental nuclear war.

I am aware that both Russia and the US have taken this problem seriously
enough to establish a joint strategic stability center in Colorado.
However, I am very much concerned that this facility will come into
operation only by 27th December 1999, so that a delay of just four days
will make it useless.

This facility is however, essential to the security of the world, and
should continue to operate indefinitely.

I am also very much concerned that Y2K problems have been found recently in
six out of seven of the 'hotlines' that would be used if a crisis of any
sort arose over the Y2K rollover period.

I am aware that there have been a number of occasions when either the US or
Russia have mistakenly believed that the other nation was in the process of
launching a nuclear attack.

With 3,600 Russian warheads on 700 missiles and 2,000 US warheads on 500
missiles, with each side capable to launch within roughly 20 minutes, this
must never be allowed to happen, either over the Y2K 'rollover', or at any
other time.

The use of 5,600 warheads would certainly mean the end of what we call
civilization, would likely mean the end of the human race and could
possibly mean the end of all life.

I therefore urge both you and the United States, to place all your nuclear
forces in a status in which at least days not minutes, would be required to
launch. The United Kingdom has, I understand, already done this.

The European Parliament has recently called on both the US and Russia to
de-alert nuclear weapons and to place them in a state similar to that in
which the UK has placed its weapons. De-alerting of nuclear forces was
strongly recommended by the Canberra Commission in 1996 and then by the
Tokyo Forum, as a way to develop strategic stability and build trust
between the US and Russia. It has also been incorporated into last year's
and this years text of the New Agenda Resolution in the UN General
Assembly. It has also been recommended by a resolution specifically on the
subject passed by last years General Assembly and by this years First
Committee on Reduction of Nuclear Dangers. In addition it has been the
subject of two resolutions passed by the Australian Senate on 12 August and
20 September, and finally it has been clearly requested by the European
Parliament. It is also the subject of congressional resolution H.Con Res177
put by Edward Markey, and most recently, the City of Berkeley has asked for
it.

In this context I am particularly concerned that statements have been made
in which the threat of nuclear weapons has been raised, and that new
missiles have been deployed and placed on alert status.

As what is at stake is potentially the survival of the entire planet, no
considerations, even the highest considerations of national security, can
take priority.

The immediate stakes are so high and the potential for global catastrophe
is so great, that  de-alerting of nuclear forces in the face of the Y2K
computer problem and the long-term possibility of false alerts must take
precedence over all other considerations of political and national security.

(Signed)
etc.

John Hallam
Friends of the Earth Sydney,
17 Lord Street, Newtown, NSW, Australia, 2042
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: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 11:47:30 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Tritium in the Ogalala Aquifer

Dear Friends,
New tritium contamination is reported in the Oglala aquifer.  The article
attributes it to bomb test fall out.  But is there a possibility that it is
coming from the DOE Pantex plant at Amarillo, where the warheads are stored
and
which sits on top of the aquifer?  Alice
>WATER CONTAMINATION SPEEDING INTO HIGH PLAINS AQUIFER
>
>OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, December 15, 1999 (ENS) - Nitrate and tritium
>concentrations in groundwater samples collected this year by the SGS from
>the
>High Plains aquifer in western Oklahoma show that water may be seeping from
>the
>land surface to the water table within the span of a few decades. The
>finding
>could affect water users, irrigated agriculture and livestock operations in
>the
>region. Many people had thought that it took hundreds or thousands of years
>for
>water and water borne contaminants to seep down to the water table in the
>High
>Plains aquifer. Because there is little rainfall, the water table is often
>more
>than 200 feet below land surface, and sheltered by layers of naturally
>cemented
>sand and gravel. The High Plains aquifer is the sole source of drinking
>water
>for most residents in the Oklahoma panhandle.
>
>The USGS sampled 12 domestic wells built in the aquifer in Oklahoma in
>early
>1999. Seven of those water samples had tritium concentrations exceeding 2.5
>picocuries per liter, indicating seepage from rainfall that fell since
>1953,
>when atmospheric testing of hydrogen bombs began. Tritium is an isotope of
>hydrogen that is harmless at low concentrations. Water samples collected
>for
>the
>project are being analyzed for ratios of tritium to helium-3 gas or for
>concentrations of carbon-14 to determine when the ground water fell as
>rainfall
>and started seeping toward the water table. This study may modify previous
>beliefs about the vulnerability of the High Plains aquifer to contamination
>in
>western Oklahoma.
>
>c Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved.
>
>
>*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
>       [e-mail] -- The email list for the
>            GRACE Factory Farming Project Team
>        See web site at http://www.factoryfarm.org/
>
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]
http://www.gracelinks.org

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.
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 12:17:14 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: (GDR)  Russia to run nuclear tests at Arctic site in 2000

>Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 18:05:31 -0500
>Subject: (GDR)  Russia to run nuclear tests at Arctic site in 2000=20
>X-FC-MachineGenerated: true
>From: [e-mail] ([e-mail])
>
>
> Russia to run nuclear tests at Arctic site in 2000=20
>
> Copyright =A9 2000 Nando Media
> Copyright =A9 2000 Associated Press
>
> MOSCOW (January 1, 2000 8:42 a.m. EST=20
>
>http://www.nandotimes.com) - Russia will conduct a series of sub-critical=
=20
>nuclear tests at an Arctic testing range this year to check the safety of
>its=20
>nuclear arsenal, a news report said Saturday.=20
>=20
> Russia carries out an average of five sub-critical tests at the Novaya=20
>Zemlya archipelago each year, and will continue the practice in 2000, the=
=20
>ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry.=
=20
>=20
> Such tests are not prohibited by the international Comprehensive Test Ban=
=20
>Treaty because the amount of radioactive plutonium used is not enough to=20
>create a nuclear explosion. But critics warn that carrying out even
>limited=20
>tests could encourage other countries to conduct full-scale nuclear tests.=
=20
>=20
> Weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium are used during the tests,
>but=20
>there is no discharge of nuclear energy.=20
>=20
> The southern tip of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is located above the=20
>Arctic Circle, 1,178 miles north of Moscow, between the Barents and Kara=20
>Seas.=20
> =20
>Global Deactivation of Radiation
>Feel free to forward this report onto a friend, or another mailing list. =
=20
>Please encourage everyone who shares our interest in Global Deactivation=20
>to visit our website for further information at  <A
>HREF=3D"www.gdr.org">GDR</A>
>  (www.gdr.org)=20
>
>If you have any information that might help in the Deactivation of=20
>Radiation, please send to: <A
>HREF=3D"mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]
>g</A>.  To Subscribe to our free reports, Send your request with the words=
=20
>"Subscribe GDR"  in the subject area to <A HREF=3D"mailto: [e-mail],=
=20
>[e-mail]">Subscribe GDR</A>. Or go directly to the sign up
>section=20
>on GDR.. at  <A HREF=3D"http://www.gdr.org/signup.html">Global Deactivation
>of=20
>Radiation Web Site EMAIL List Signup</A>
>Help spread the need to finding ways to  deactivate radiation.=20
>GDR needs: researchers, volunteers, web designers and funds.=20
>=20
> From:     <A
>HREF=3D"mailto:[e-mail],[e-mail]">[e-mail],=20
>[e-mail] (GDR Researcher Steven L. Wilson, Sr and GDR Founder Fred
>M=20
>Davis)</A>
>
><A HREF=3D"http://www.gdr.org/environment.html">Global Deactivation of=20
>Radiation 3 Cents Long-distance environment savings
></A>http://www.gdr.org/env
>ironment.html=20
>OUR SUPERSTORE  http://www.gdr.org/excel.html
> =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]
http://www.gracelinks.org

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty=
 to
eliminate nuclear weapons. =20

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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, 03 Jan 2000 12:37:39 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) World Trade Organization Article

Dear Tim,
I think you should talk about the Global War System.  Attached is my paper
which I gave at a panel co-sponsored by Abolition 2000 at the WTO.  Also,
Steve
Staples, who is the convenor of our working group on Military/Corporate
Issues,
and who organized the panel, has a good paper as well.  His email address is
[e-mail] and he might have some additional materials for you.
Also, our panel, The Global War System is on live video at=
 www.tappedinto.com=20
Thanks for doing this.   Alice


THE BIG GUN BEHIND THE GLOBAL WAR MACHINE
NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND SON OF STAR WARS
By Alice Slater


Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, ten years
ago,
there are still more than 36,000 nuclear weapons on our planet12,000 in the
US;
23,000 in Russiawith about 5,000 bombs in those countries poised at hair
trigger alertready to fire in minutesand arsenals numbering in the hundreds=
 of
bombs in the UK, France, China, and Israelwith something less than that=
 number
in India and Pakistan.=20

In 1970 the nations of the world negotiated the Non-Proliferation=
 Treaty(NPT)
in which a deal was struck that the then five nuclear weapons statesthe US,
Russia, UK, France, and China would give up their nuclear weapons in return
for
a promise from the remaining 181 nations not to acquire them.  India
refused to
agree to this arrangement, arguing that it was discriminatory and that the
better course would be to negotiate for the abolition of nuclear weapons.=20
Pakistan and Israel, following India=92s lead, also refused to sign.  The=
 NPT
required that there be a review and extension conference, 25 years later
and so
in 1995 the countries convened,  and to the dismay of NGOs gathered there,
five
nuclear thugs and their allies beat up the rest of the world to have the NPT
extended indefinitely and unconditionally.  At this point, the Abolition=
 2000
Network was born.  Appalled at the lack of commitment to nuclear=
 disarmament,
more than 65 citizens organizations gathered at the UN from the four
corners of
the globe, and drafted the Abolition Statement which called for immediate
negotiations on a treaty to ban the bomb, just as the world has done for
chemical and biological weapons, to be completed by 2000.

Abolition 2000 also recognized at that time, the inextricable link between
nuclear weapons and nuclear power and we called in our statement for the
creation of an International Sustainable Energy Agency, just as there is
now an
International Atomic Energy Agency enshrined in Article IV of the NPT which
recognizes an =93inalienable right=94 to the peaceful uses of atomic energy.=
  The
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which failed so ignominiously to obtain US
Senate ratification last month, recognizes this =93inextricable link.=94  It
requires the ratification of the 44 nations which have nuclear reactors=
 before
the treaty enters into force.  The drafters of this treaty understood that
every nuclear power plant is a bomb factorywitness India and Pakistan, and
recent statements by a high Japanese official that Japan should exercise its
nuclear weapons option.

Since the formation of Abolition 2000, we participated in a global action
through our email network which supported a boycott of French wine and=
 cheese
when France resumed what was to be a series of eight nuclear tests under the
fragile coral atoll of Mururowa in the South Pacific.  France aborted its=
 test
series after enormous grassroots pressure at the sixth test.  Abolition 2000
went to Tahiti for its annual meeting and adopted the Moorea Declaration
recognizing the enormous suffering of indigenous peoples from the=
 colonialism
of the nuclear age.  Every nuclear test site is on indigenous landand the
costs
to life and health to those downwinders have been grossly unacceptable.
But we
are all downwinders.  The fallout from atmospheric testing, Chernobyl and
Three
Mile Island, the mining, milling and manufacture of nuclear weapons and
nuclear
power has created more than 4,500 contaminated sites in the US alone which=
 may
take 75 years and cost as high as one trillion dollars to =93clean up=94.
Clean up
of toxic plutonium, which remains lethal for over 250,000 years is the wrong
word.  At best, we can only attempt to manage and contain the poisons from
seeping into the air and groundwater and visiting further destruction on the
earth=92s peoplewith a rising cancer epidemic, increased mutations, genetic
damage and other plagues of the nuclear age. =20

Worst of all, we=92re still doing it.  In return for a promise from the US
weapons labs to support the CTBTa promise they reneged on during the CTB
debacle in the Congress last month, the Clinton administration promised the
Dr.
Strangeloves a $4.6 billion program over the next ten years called Stockpile
Stewardship, which is enabling the labs to design new nuclear weapons in
computer simulated virtual reality with the help of so called =93sub-critica=
l=94
testswe=92ve done eight of them since Clinton signed the test ban in=
 1996where
plutonium is shattered in tunnels 1000 feet below the desert floor without
causing a chain reactionwhich Clinton says doesn=92t count as a nuclear=
 test.=20
First he said he didn=92t inhale.  Then he said he didn=92t have sex.  Now=
 he
claims he=92s stopped nuclear tests!!=20

These programs are driven by and feeding the global war machines by
corporations such as Lockheed Martin which manages Sandia national lab, the
engineering adjunct to Los Alamos, and General Electric a leading developer=
 of
nuclear technology.  And Lockheed Martin has played a key role in the tragic
deterioration of US-Russian relations, which is empowering the rusty cold
warriors in Congress to actually increase the military budget by $17=
 billion,
more than even the Pentagon requested this year  swelling their already
bulging
corporate coffers..

The Bush administration promised Gorbachev that if Russia did not oppose the
admission of a reunified Germany into NATO when the Berlin wall crumbled ten
years ago, we would not expand NATO.  Yet the US Committee to Expand NATO,
which lobbied furiously on the Hill to disregard our pledge to Russia, was
chaired by the Vice-President of Lockheed-Martin, working successfully to
expand its lethal market to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.  NATO=
=92s
50th Anniversary Summit last April was hosted by corporate sponsors,=
 including
Boeing, Raytheon, and the like, who paid up to $250,000 to mingle and peddle
their deadly wares to the 19 Foreign Ministers in attendance.

Russia proposed, in August meetings with US arms control negotiators, that
each
country agree to cut its supply of long-range nuclear bombs from 5,000 down=
 to
1,500 warheads. The Russian offer could give us the opportunity to make a=
 full
accounting of all warheads and provide for early de-alerting of bombs
poised at
hair-trigger readiness, which would considerably ratchet down the nuclear
danger to our planet.

Were the US to follow through on this generous Russian proposal, we would=
 have
an extraordinary opportunity to bring all the nuclear weapons states to the
negotiating table for a treaty to ban the bomb.  The US response has been
appalling.  Seeking to squeeze the final bitter cup of humiliation from
Russia,
which is still smarting from the expansion of NATO up to the Russian border,
the continued unilateral bombing of Iraq without UN approval, and the
unauthorized NATO bombing of Yugoslavia without Security Council sanction,=
 the
Clinton administration persists in demanding that Russia yield to our
corporate-driven scheme to abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and=
 move
full speed ahead with =93Son of Star Wars=94. =20

The same merchants of death who drove through the provocative expansion of
NATO
are driving the Star Wars revival as well, which is unashamedly proclaimed=
 as
the ultimate enforcer of protection for US corporate interests.  In an
illustration of a laser beam from space zapping a target, the US Space
Command=92s report, Vision for 2020, nakedly trumpets, =93US Space
Commanddominating
the space dimensions of military operations to protect US interests and
investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across=
 the
full spectrum of conflict=94.  "Vision For 2020" compares the U.S. effort to
"control space" with the effort centuries ago when "nations built navies to
protect and enhance their commercial interests" by ruling the oceans.=20
       =20
General Joseph Ashy, former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Space Command, =
 has
said: "It's politically sensitive, but it's going to happen. Some people=
 don't
want to hear this, and it sure isn't in vogue, but--absolutely--we're going=
 to
fight in space. We're going to fight from space and we're going to fight=
 into
space=85.We will engage terrestrial targets someday-ships, airplanes, land
targets-from space=85.That's why the U.S. has development programs in=
 directed
energy and hit-to-kill mechanisms"   Last year, the U.S. signed a
multi-million
dollar contract for a "Space-Based Laser Readiness Demonstrator." A
promotional
poster shows the laser firing its ray from space, a U.S. flag waving in=
 space
above it.  The Star Wars lobby has been lead by companies like Lockheed
Martin,
Raytheon, Boeing, and TRW who are dividing up billions of dollars in
contracts,
obtained in no small part to the $23million they spent lobbying and $4=
 million
in campaign contribution to a corrupt political process in 1997-98.  The=
 Space
Command=92s Long Range Plan: Executive Summary has a long list of
=93Acknowledgements to Commercial Industry including 48 companies who are
helping
them to =93dominate the military uses of space to protect US interests and
investments.=94

Abolition 2000 has a new Working Group formed, under the leadership of Steve
Staples to address the military-industrial issues. We also work with Bruce
Gagnon's network to prevent the Militarization and nuclearization of space.
The
nuclear sword of Damocles and the plans afoot to dominate space are the=
 seldom
mentioned enforcers of globalization.  Help us rid the world of the big guns
which are the ultimate enforcers of WTO decisions.  Work with us to end the
arms race to the heavens.  Enroll in the Abolition 2000 network.  Support=
 the
distribution of our Model Nuclear Weapons convention, drafted by lawyers,
scientists, and policymakers, and now an official UN document, to your own
government officials.  Sign our petitions.  Pass a resolution in your city. =
=20
=20
And remember, as that old soldier who warned of us of the dangers of the
military-industrial complex, Dwight Eisenhower, said: =93Every gun that is=
 made,
every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not
clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.  It is spending=
 the
sweat of it laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its
children.=94


WTO   November 28, 1999






At 07:02 PM 01/01/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Abolitionists:
>
>Debbie Davis of the Davis Enterprise has made me a contributing writer for
>the Enterprise's Op-Ed page.  My first assignment (due Jan. 14) is to write
>an article about the World Trade Organization.  What should I say about
>the WTO?
>
>I would like to interview businesses near my workplace (Mengali's Florist
>at
>611 2nd Street in Davis) about their views on the WTO, and also interview
>local WTO activists.  Who should I interview, and what questions should I
>ask them?
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Timothy Bruening
>1439 Brown Drive
>Davis, CA 95616
>
>
>-
> 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.
> =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]
http://www.gracelinks.org

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty=
 to
eliminate nuclear weapons. =20

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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.

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

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