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abolition-usa-digest     Monday, February 12 2001     Volume 01 : Number 419




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

Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 21:32:17 -0800
From: [e-mail] (marylia)
Subject: (abolition-usa) NIF Lawsuit/Preliminary Injunction sought

Dear peace and environmental colleagues: Here is an article regarding the
National Ignition Facility and the Motion for Preliminary Injunction on the
project's rebaseline, filed by NRDC and Tri-Valley CAREs. Read on for more
information...

Groups Seek Court Injunction to Bar Use of Biased NIF Review

by Christopher Paine and Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' February 2001 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

Tri-Valley CAREs and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) will file
a motion in early February in the Federal Court for the District of
Columbia to bar the Department of Energy from using a biased August 2000
"Rebaseline Validation Review" of the controversial National Ignition
Facility (NIF) mega-laser.

Our motion for preliminary injunction, if granted, will prevent DOE from
employing what we believe is an illegally-prepared Review to garner more
public and Congressional support for the controversial laser fusion
project.

The DOE has relied on the tainted "Rebaseline" to assert to Congress that
it has gained control over the NIF's technical and budget problems when, in
truth, it has not. Thus, this motion is particularly important. If we
prevail, DOE could be forced to go back to "square one" and prepare a more
complete and accurate assessment of the NIF program. It has long been our
view that Congress would likely cancel NIF if it understood the program's
true budget costs, technical snafus and nuke proliferation risks.

Additionally, the motion by NRDC and Tri-Valley CAREs seeks to prevent DOE
from forming any other advisory committees concerning the NIF that do not
fully comply with the public notice, openness and balance requirements of
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

The two groups are represented by Meyer & Glitzenstein, a Washington, D.C.
law firm with a record of successfully litigating  FACA violations
committed by DOE and other federal agencies. "The violations involved in
this case are blatant, and all citizens concerned about the manipulation of
federal agencies for private ends should welcome the action my clients are
taking," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Howard Crystal.

The motion for preliminary injunction is part of our groups' ongoing
lawsuit against DOE alleging a pattern of FACA violations in connection
with the NIF project dating back to at least 1996. (See also the Nov. 2000
Citizen's Watch.) In fact, last year's Review, chaired by DOE officials
Kathleen Carlson and Daniel Lehman, failed to meet any of FACA's
requirements. (See box, below.)

Without any public notice or participation, some 38 committee members -
including numerous paid consultants to DOE's Livermore Laboratory - met in
secret at the Lab from August 7-11, 2000 and reviewed the NIF construction
project in support of the DOE Secretary's "certification" of the new
"baseline" cost and schedule for the NIF, which DOE delivered to Congress
on September 15, 2000.

 DOE's press release of that date asserted that "an independent technical
review of the project, known as the Carlson-Lehman Review, had concluded
that the NIF project can be completed successfully using current technology
within the total cost and schedule defined in the revised baseline."

Tri-Valley CAREs and NRDC filed the lawsuit after DOE  refused to withdraw
its public characterization of the NIF Rebaseline Review as "independent,"
and to inform the Congress that the Review had not been conducted in
compliance with FACA.

Among the numerous FACA violations cited in the current motion, perhaps the
most damaging to the integrity of the public policy process was the
stacking of the Review with paid consultants and advisers to Livermore Lab
and the NIF Project - creating the very kind of biased panel that FACA was
expressly enacted to prevent.

The two groups have identified eleven members of the Rebaseline Committee
with serious financial or career conflicts of interest, "and seven of them
had individual consulting contracts with Livermore in areas directly
related to the NIF project," according to an affidavit filed by NRDC senior
researcher, Chris Paine.  For example, in one critical area of the review -
the evaluation of the NIF's large optical components - all four members of
the "Large Optics" subcommittee had "clear biases in favor of NIF," Paine
explained.

Specifically, the subcommittee chairman, Michel Andre, a senior scientist
in the French Megajoule laser project has extensive contractual relations
and engages in many joint efforts with the NIF program. Were he to be
critical of NIF, and its optics component, his own program and career would
have been adversely affected. Two other subcommittee members, John Emmett
and E. Perry Wallerstein, are former senior laser program officials at
Livermore Lab - and long-standing paid consultants to the Lab as well. The
fourth member of the subcommittee, Dr. Michelle Shinn, works at DOE's
Thomas Jefferson Laboratory in Virginia, whose Director, Dr. Hermann
Grunder, until recently chaired Livermore's NIF Programs Review Committee,
one of the bodies found most responsible for failing to exert adequate
oversight of the project.

Two other subcommittees of the Rebaseline Committee - the "Line Replaceable
Units" and "Assembly, Installation, and Commissioning" panels - were also
chaired by employees of Dr. Grunder at the time of their participation in
the NIF Rebaseline Review.  Each of these subpanels also included a member
- - Drs. Robert McCrory and Steve Loucks, respectively - from the University
of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a major Livermore
subcontractor and scientific collaborator on the NIF Project.

Documents obtained by Tri-Valley CAREs under the California Public Records
Act reveal that McCrory and Loucks are also signatories on Livermore Lab
NIF subcontracts with the University of Rochester worth millions of
dollars. According to an affidavit filed in support of the motion by the
organization's executive director, Marylia Kelley,  the group has in its
possession 47 records, including NIF subcontracts, contract modifications,
schedules and sole-source awards, that were signed by McCrory and Loucks or
show them as managers or executors for the contracts.

McCrory has also been a paid individual consultant to the Lab Director's
Office and the Lab's NIF Program Directorate since 1996, and, according to
copies of contracts NRDC recently acquired under the California Public
Records Act, entered into a new contract to consult on the NIF only weeks
after his service on the Rebaseline Committee.

The  panel on NIF assembly also included another longtime paid private
consultant to Livermore, Dr. Damon Giovanielli, who had served only a few
months earlier as the chair of the NIF Project's own "Target Physics
Program Review Committee," which had concluded that "NIF should be
completed to its full 192-beam configuration."

According to the declarations put before the court by Paine and Kelley,
other members of the Rebaseline Committee had similar conflicts. Dr. John
Peoples and James Renfro, were under contract with the Livermore lab to
provide consulting services at the time of the Review, and Eugene
Desaulniers had been a paid consultant to the NIF project as recently as
Oct. 1998. William Barletta, of DOE's Lawrence Berkeley Lab, had previously
been tapped by NIF management to promote the project in Congressional
meetings.

In short, the DOE Rebaseline Committee's Review of NIF is the epitome of
everything that the Federal Advisory Committee Act was designed to prevent
- - a hasty, biased and cooked-to-order review, conducted in secret by agency
officials and insiders who stood to benefit from the very recommendations
they were being called upon to make.

                                                FACA Facts

Congress enacted the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) in 1972 to
control wasteful expenditures and open to public scrutiny the ways in which
government agencies obtain advice from private individuals. Prior to FACA ,
advisory committees had become convenient nesting places for special
interests seeking to influence federal agency actions for their own ends.

FACA applies to agencies when they establish or utilize a group that
includes at least one non-federal employee to provide collective advice or
recommendations to the agency. To legally obtain such advice, an agency
must, among other requirements: prepare a charter detailing the committee's
objectives, duties, costs, etc.; publish a notice in the Federal Register
that describes the need and purpose for the advisory committee and includes
"the agency's plan to attain fairly balanced membership"; and ensure that
the resulting committee is "balanced in terms of the points of view
represented" and is not "inappropriately influenced by the appointing
authority or any special interest."

Once the committee is formed, FACA provides public notice and participation
requirements, and specifies that the advisory committee must hold open
meetings and make documents that it reviewed or produced available to the
public.

The Department of Energy's NIF "Rebaseline Validation Review" Committee
failed to comply on all counts.

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

[phone] - is our phone
[phone] - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983, Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of the
Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the
U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back From the Brink
campaign to get nuclear weapons taken off hair-trigger alert.



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 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, 06 Feb 2001 12:07:50 -0500
From: Ellen Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Correction Re: NucNews 01/02/06 - How to call/fax the White House.

Sorry, I failed to catch the typo in one of the messages I forwarded this
morning.

The White House hotline phone number is 202-456-1414, NOT 465. People can also
call at: 202-456-1111. People can fax the White House at: 202-456-2461.  And
you can email: mailto:[e-mail] and
mailto:[e-mail]

Ellen



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 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: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 14:26:07 -0800
From: "Abolition2000 Pacific Region" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Can you all please help me?!

Hi Nuclear Abolitionists,

I apologize this question is not immediately related to nuclear disarmament.
But sometime back, I think someone posted a message either to the Abolition
Global caucus or US abolition lists containing an analysis of the larger
failure of the Left movement in the US. I think this may have been during
the onset of the US military attack on Yugoslavia and someone was making the
point about the Left being increasingly unable to influence major policies,
like the use of military force and disarmament. I am interested as well if
you know of any comparative analyses of European, US, and other countries'
Left movements declining influence, not that I wish to hasten such a dire
development. I wanted to look at the ways in which different movements were
going about to improve the Left's ability to effect significant policy
changes where there were uncoordinated, unorganized and therefore
ineffective, movements. It is part of my dissertation research.  Thank you
all very kindly and in advance for your kind help.

Please respond privately to this address.

Richard Salvador
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii




_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com


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

Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 10:49:06 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Signature Sheet (text)

>Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 04:30:01 -0500
>Subject: Signature Sheet (text)
>To: [e-mail]
>From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
>
>                                Signature Campaign
>                             Save Dugong and Peace !
>                      No to a new U.S. Base in Okinawa !
>
>A new U.S. Marine Base is planned to be constructed on the northern
>offshore area (Nago city) of Okinawa (Japan) which is habitats of
>precious species including Dugong (internationally protected "Threatened
>and Endangered" sea animal). It would also infringe international
>norm of preserving natural environment, and would be a threat to
>the life of residents as well as to peace and security of Asia & Pacific
>and of the world.
>
>Therefore, in solidarity with Okinawan people, we demand:
>- to abandon a plan to construct a new U.S. marine base at an offshore
>   of Nago / Okinawa.
>
>- to reduce and finally remove U.S. Marine Corps from Okinawa.
>
>
>        signature                      country
>occupation / organization
>
>
>------------------      -----------------
>----------------------------------
>
>------------------      -----------------
>----------------------------------
>
>------------------      -----------------
>----------------------------------
>
>------------------      -----------------
>----------------------------------
>
>------------------      -----------------
>----------------------------------
>
>                 * The signatures collected will be submitted to
>                    the Prime Minister of Japan on April 28, 2000.
>

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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: Fri, 9 Feb 2001 17:05:43 +1100
From: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) WRITE/FAX  TONY BLAIR, BUSH NOW  Say No to NMD/Star Wars

SAY NO TO NMD/STAR WARS - WRITE/FAX  TONY BLAIR, BUSH NOW

(Apologies for multiple postings - delete the excess copies, but DO pass
this on to all who might be interested)

Dear All who are concerned over NMD/Star Wars:

British prime minister Tony Blair will be visiting President Bush on 23-24
Feb, at Camp David.

High on the list of topics they talk about will be NMD/Star Wars.

The position of the UK is absolutely vital for NMD/Star Wars to proceed, as
it requires use of the Fylingdales facility.

There is a possibility that Blair may cave in  to Bush's demands to make
use of UK radar facilities for NMD.

You are therefore urged to write/fax prime minister Tony Blair (especially
if you are in the UK), asking him to strongly oppose national missile
defence during his visit. (Fax number  [phone])

A sample letter is below. Please rewrite/shorten this creatively.

If you are in the US, you are urged to write to President Bush,(Letter
below), asking him not to proceed with NMD/Star Wars.  (Sample Letter
below, also on
http://www.abolition2000.org/action/saynotostarwars.html)


The letter to Tony Blair is based on one on the BASIC website, to all non -
US governments.  You can adapt that letter if you live outside either the
US OR the UK.

That letter can be found on:
<http://www.basicint.org/NMDpage.htm#Debate in European Governments>


1) SUGGESTED LETTER TO TONY BLAIR
Send this if you are outside the US, especially if you are in the UK -
Please customise it creatively

To: Prime Minister Tony Blair, [phone]

Re: Please Convey Opposition to Missile Defence Scheme

Dear Tony Blair,

I am writing to you in view of your forthcoming visit to President Bush on
Feb 23-24.

I urge you to express as strongly as possible the opposition of the UK to
any NMD system.

The deployment of NMD will have serious implications for the proliferation
of nuclear weapons. Russia and China have made it clear that they will
increase their own nuclear offensive capabilities in order to counter NMD.
This will set back attempts to reduce nuclear weapons severely and may lead
to another nuclear arms race.  Serious developments in this direction are
already taking place.

In addition, the deployment of NMD will either completely destroy or
fundamentally weaken the Anti- Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, seen
internationally as the cornerstone of international arms control. This will
have serious consequences for maintaining and strengthening other
international agreements such as Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

NMD has been opposed by a wide range of organisations and groups, ranging
from 354 major NGOs representing millions of people worldwide, to 50 of the
US Nobel prize-winners in physics, to generals and church congregations. It
has also been opposed by every major international grouping represented in
the UN General Assembly.

For all of these reasons, I urge you to use all the diplomatic influence at
your disposal, particularly in your forthcoming visit,  to impress upon the
incoming Bush administration the UK's opposition to the NMD system.

I also urge you to make clear to the Bush administration that your
government will refuse to
cooperate in any way with the NMD scheme, and that the use of Fylingdales
and other UK facilities will not be permitted for it.

NMD is a scheme that is unlikely ever to work, against a threat that may
never materialize and that, in any case, is better dealt with in other
ways. It will cost billions better spent elsewhere, and will make
further progress toward the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear
weapons - an objective to which the United States as well as all other
governments are committed - much more difficult, if not impossible.

I therefore urge you to impress on the US government the importance of not
proceeding with NMD, but rather of proceeding with the Bush administrations
other major committments in nuclear arms control , namely deep cuts in
warhead numbers,   and of reductions in alert status of strategic weapons
systems.

(Signed)

(Your name)


(2) SUGGESTED LETTER TO BUSH, POWELL, RICE, RUMSFELD
Send this if you are in the United States - Please customise creatively

Customise and adapt/rewrite this creatively please.

TO:
GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT,
1-202-456-2461, 1-202-456-6218, 1-202-456-6201,

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE, [phone],
CONDOLEEZA RICE,
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER,  1-202-456-2883,
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY FOR DEFENCE,
[phone],

RE: PLEASE CANCEL MISSILE DEFENCE SCHEME

Dear President George Bush, Secretary for Defence Rumsfeld, Security
Adviser Condoleeza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell,

I am writing to you to convey my dismay that your administration may
proceed with an enlarged version of  the ill-concieved 'National Missile
Defence' ('Star Wars') scheme.

The deployment of NMD will make it much harder, if not impossible, to
achieve vital arms control objectives. Russia and China have made it clear
that they will increase their own nuclear offensive capabilities in order
to counter NMD. This will set back attempts to reduce nuclear weapons
severely and may lead to another nuclear arms race.

National Missile Defence in its current form,  has failed two out of its
three operational tests and has been critiqued by the US scientific
establishment as fundamentally flawed.

More importantly, Russia and China as well as the US's own allies have made
it clear that they regard the preservation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty as paramount.   The ABM treaty cannot be modified in a way that
would allow the deployment of NMD, and the US should not walk away from it.

NMD has been opposed by groups ranging from 354 major NGOs representing
millions of people worldwide, to 50 of the US's Nobel prizewinners in
physics, to generals and church people.

Non-US governments  worldwide,  including close US allies, have strongly
opposed NMD.

NMD is a scheme  that is unlikely ever to work, against a threat that may
never materialize and that is in any case better dealt with in other ways.
It will cost billions better spent elsewhere, and will make further
progress toward the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear weapons -
an objective to which the US as well as all other governments are committed
- - much more difficult if not impossible.

I therefore urge you to drop the NMD proposal and to focus your efforts on
the vital objectives of deep reductions in warhead numbers, and reductions
in the alert status of weapons, to which you committed yourself during your
campaign.
(Signed)  (Your name)



3)LETTER SENT ON 8 FEB 2001 TO TONY BLAIR WITH THE LAST YEARS LETTER FROM
363 GROUPS WORLDWIDE
You can also get ideas from this one to help  write to Tony Blair or Bush

To: Prime Minister Tony Blair, [phone]
cc
Robin Cook, Minister for Foreign Affairs,
[phone]

Re: Please Convey Strong Opposition to Missile Defence Scheme During Visit
to Bush 23-24 Feb.
8/2/2001

Dear Tony Blair,

I am writing to you in view of your forthcoming visit to President Bush on
Feb. 23-24.  I write as as the coordinator of a letter signed by 363 NGOs
and parliamentarians worldwide that was faxed to yourself and President
Clinton last year.  Signatories to that letter included the Worldwide
Consultative Association of Retired Generals and Admirals, Friends of the
Earth International (with branches in 60 countries) Greenpeace
International, World Court Project,  CND, BASIC,  IPPNW, and WILPF.

It was signed by 32 parliamentarians including 3 from the UK, 9 from
Canada, 6 MEPs and 14 Australian MPs.

The NGO and Parliamentary representatives who signed represent (at least)
millions of people.  It is being faxed to you again with this letter.

I urge you to express as strongly as possible the strong opposition of the
UK to any NMD system, and to make it clear that changes to the Flyingdales
facility to permit NMD will not be permitted.

The deployment of NMD will have serious implications for the proliferation
of nuclear weapons. Russia and China have made it clear that they will
increase their own nuclear offensive capabilities in order to counter NMD.
This will set back attempts to reduce nuclear weapons severely and may lead
to another nuclear arms race.  Serious developments in this direction are
already taking place.

In addition, the deployment of NMD will either completely destroy or
fundamentally weaken the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, seen
internationally as the cornerstone of international arms control. This will
have serious consequences for maintaining and strengthening other
international agreements such as Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

NMD has been opposed by a wide range of organizations and groups, ranging
from 363 major NGOs representing millions of people worldwide, to 50 of the
US Nobel prize-winners in physics, to generals and church congregations. It
has also been opposed by every major international grouping represented in
the UN General Assembly.

NMD is a scheme that is unlikely ever to work, against a threat that may
never materialize and that, in any case, is better dealt with in other
ways. It will cost billions better spent elsewhere, and will make further
progress toward the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear weapons -
an objective to which the United States as well as all other governments
are committed - much more difficult, if not impossible.

For all of these reasons, I urge you to use all the diplomatic influence at
your disposal,  in your forthcoming visit,  to impress upon the incoming
Bush administration the UK's opposition to the NMD system.

I therefore urge you to impress on the US government the importance of not
proceeding with NMD, but rather of proceeding with the Bush administrations
other major commitments in nuclear arms control , namely deep cuts in
warhead numbers,   and of reductions in alert status of strategic weapons
systems.

I also urge you to make clear to the Bush administration that your
government will refuse to cooperate in any way with the NMD scheme, and
that the use of Fylingdales and other UK facilities will not be permitted
for it.


John Hallam,
Nuclear Weapons Spokesperson, Friends of the Earth Australia
Coordinator of International Sign-on Letter on NMD


4) Websites where you can get more information on letters to send to world
leaders:

The abolition 2000 website is:

http://www.abolition2000.org/action/saynotostarwars.html

The letter on the BASIC website is:

<http://www.basicint.org/NMDpage.htm#Debate in European Governments>

An online petition to stop star- wars is to be found at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Jules/


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



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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: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 15:37:12 -0500
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: Plutonium: The Last Five years

>Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 13:18:22 -0500
>Subject: Plutonium: The Last Five years
>X-FC-MachineGenerated: true
>To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
>From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
>
>This also available at:
>
>
>http://www.bredl.org/press/2001/Pu_Report.htm
>
>
>
>
>The Executive Summary and Part I have been posted, but Parts 2
>and 3 will not be posted until late tonite due to formatting difficulties
>on my end.
>
>
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       CONTACT:
>
>
>February 6, 2001                                     Don Moniak (803)
644-6953
>
>
>                                                              Janet Zellar
[phone] (after 2/6)
>
>
>
>
>GROUP RELEASES REPORT: PLUTONIUM, THE LAST FIVE
>YEARS
>
>
>
>
>        The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) today
>released a three part report, Plutonium, The Last Five Years
>documenting plutonium hazards and inventories and revealing the
>Department of EnergyÆs mismanagement of its plutonium storage
>responsibilities. BREDL called on the  Department of Energy to disclose
>it current plutonium and highly enriched uranium inventories and make
>safe, secure plutonium storage its number one priority; and for the new
>administration to reverse the trend towards increased secrecy in DOEÆs
>nuclear weapons complex .
>
>
>        The release of this report marks the 5th Anniversary of Secretary of
>Energy Hazel OÆLearyÆs last openness media conference, at which
>declassified estimates of plutonium and highly enriched uranium
>inventories were announced. Plutonium, the Last Five Years documents
>
>
>DOEÆs inconsistent management of 26 metric tonnes of separated,
>unstable plutonium contained in more than 100,000 individual items and
>scheduled to be sent to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina or
>buried as waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. DOEÆs
>mismanagement has included:
>
>
>a  failure to meet its own long-term storage criteria for six metric
>tonnes of highly dispersible plutonium oxide powder and more than
>eight metric tonnes of plutonium metals.
>
>
>spending two years ôstudyingö how to store ten metric tonnes of
>plutonium it plans to begin trucking this year from the Rocky Flats
>plant in Colorado to the Savannah River Site.
>
>
><more>
>
>
>The report also details how DOE mismanagement of 12,000 plutonium
>pits stored at the Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant in Texas is increasing
>the uncertainty of the reliability of its nuclear weapons arsenal and
>fueling demands for new plutonium pit production. At the present time,
>DOE is storing thousands of plutonium pits it calls ôNational Security
>Assetsö in decades-old facilities and in containers unsuitable for long-
>term storage. The Department has not funded the procurement of new
>containers for its ôenduring stockpileö plutonium pits.
>
>
>A review of the hazards of plutonium reveals similar disturbing trends
>with the 21 metric tonnes of plutonium contained in about 7,000
>plutonium pits that DOE intends to truck to SRS this decade to be
>disassembled and converted for use in a plutonium fuel factory:
>
>
>The Department is planning to treat plutonium oxide powders at
>temperatures that will operations at its plutonium fuel factory more
>vulnerable to explosions, leaks, and increased radioactive waste
>generation;
>
>
>DOE and SRS have no apparent plan for preventing Chronic
>Beryllium Disease at SRS even though plutonium pit disassembly
>and conversion will convert SRS into one of the governmentÆs
>largest processor of high purity beryllium.
>
>
>Finally, the report details how plutonium ôdispositionö facilities have
>been sold as ônonproliferationö missions at the same time DOE has
>secretly been planning and upgrading its capabilities to fabricate 100-500
>new plutonium pits per year at SRS.
>
>
>ôDOEÆs own scientific reports point to plutonium as having the most
>complex chemistry of any element known to the human race, yet they are
>pursuing agendas that will put people and our environment at far greater
>risk from plutonium,ö said Don Moniak of Aiken, South Carolina,
>Community Organizer for BREDL.
>
>
>ôThe Department of Energy is playing with something far more
>dangerous than fire. It is time to recognize plutonium as a liability and
>drop this crazy scheme to use it as fuel,ö said BREDLÆs Executive
>Director Janet Zellar.
>
>
><end>
>
>
>
>
>Don Moniak
>Organizer, Aiken Office
>Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
>P.O Box 3487
>Aiken, SC 29802-3487
>[phone]
>Fax: [phone]
>[e-mail]
>

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

Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 20:33:22 -0500
From: Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Contact the U.N. nuclear powers

E-Mail, fax, or phone the Nuclear Powers at the United Nations:
- - China: E-mail: [e-mail]
- - France: E-mail: [e-mail], Phone:[phone],
Fax:[phone]
- - India: E-mail: [e-mail], Phone:[phone],
Fax:[phone]
- - Israel: E-mail: [e-mail], Phone:[phone],
Fax:[phone]
- - Pakistan: E-mail: [e-mail], Telex:5742
- - Russia:E-mail: [e-mail], Phone:[phone], Fax:
011-70-95-205-4219
- - UK: E-mail:[e-mail], Phone:[phone], Fax: [phone]
(Tony Blair)
- - USA: E-mail: [e-mail], [e-mail],
Phone:[phone] and 202-456-1414, Fax:[phone]

__________________________________________________

*   Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org  *
    Please sign the Online Petition! -
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/prop1/petition.html
     NucNews - Today and Archives -
     http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm
__________________________________________________

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

Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 15:57:31 -0500
From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]> (by way of ASlater <[e-mail]>)
Subject: (abolition-usa) Appeal From Okinawans for Messages of Support -  'No' to new mili tary base in Ok

February 10, 2000
Friends,
         Today's news of the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat by a U.S.
sumarine, with possibly as many as 25 Japanese students being killed in the
accident, is truly horrifying. One more manifestation of how, even in
"peacetime", militarism and preparations for war are deadly.
         While our mailings will not continue focus as heavily on Okinawa as
they have in the last few days, if you, or the organizations you are
associated with could respond to the appeal below for messages and
statements opposing the construction of a new U.S. Marine air base in Nago
(Northern Okinawa), it would make a big difference. Sending a copy to your
Congressional representatives and/or local newspaper would also make a
differnce.
         With appreciation,
         Joseph Gerson
         American Friends Service Committee

'No' to new military base in Okinawa

Dear friends,

The following is an information and appeal on Japanese
campaign against a new US base construction in Okinawa.
This is an initiative suggested by Japan Peace
Conference in Okinawa (Nov. 30 - Dec. 3, Okinawa). We
would be grateful if you send us your support & message.

Thank you.

In solidarity.

Tadaaki Kawata (Japan Peace Committee)

========================================================

Solidarity & Signature Campaign "Save Dugong and Peace !
No to a new U.S. Base in Okinawa !" 10 March - 28 April,
2000

Peace movements and trade unions of Japan together with
Okinawan people will organize a nation-wide campaign,
from 10 March to 28 April, 2000, against the
construction of a new U.S. marine base at an offshore
area of Nago City, Okinawa (southern islands of Japan).

One of the main actions of the campaign is a "Peace
Caravan" (a peace march) starting from Nago City on
March 10, traveling many cities covering all prefectures
of Japan, reaching Tokyo on April 28. Various actions
will be held in the cities where "Peace Caravan" will
visit.

We would like to promote this campaign with broad
international support and solidarity. In the starting
rally of the campaign in Nago, March 10, we are going to
receive delegates from Republic of Korea (Maehyang-ri,
U.S. bombing range) and Puerto Rico (Vieques). At the
same time, we are going to carry out signature campaign
both domestically and internationally.

We are opposed to this plan, because:

- - An offshore area of Nago City of Okinawa is habitats
of precious species and treasures of living things
including Dugong, internationally protected sea mammal.
International Union for the Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN) advised in its world assembly
in Jordan last October that careful environment
assessment should be carried on the planned construction
area and all necessary measures be taken to protect
Dugong.

- - It would be another burden of Okinawan people, who
have for long time since the end of WOW been suffering
serious problems and damages caused by U.S. bases and
military, such as crimes (rapes, murder, etc),
accidents, noise, pollution and so on. Okinawan people
is eager to eradicate them and to remove all these
bases.

- - It would be a real threat to peace and security of
Asia as well as of the world. This plan is consistent
with a policy of the U.S. to secure Okinawa as a stable
foothold for military interference and intervention into
the Asia-Pacific region well into the 21st century and
after. It would also integrate more deeply Japan into
U.S. military operation.

We call upon you to support this campaign and to send us
signatures and message of yours as well as of your
colleagues and friends.

Looking forward to your active response.

With best regards.

Secretariat of the Campaign c/o Japan Peace Committee
Shiba 1-4-9, Minato-ku, 105-0014 [phone] (tel) /
[phone] (fax) e-mail: [e-mail]
(office)

Tadaaki Kawata (resp. international contact) e-mail:
[e-mail]

__________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 06:36:27 -0500
From: Ellen Thomas <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews 01/02/12 - Today's Announcements

<html>
<font size=3>NucNews archives are posted through February 8, 2001 at
</font><a href="http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm" eudora="autourl"><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm</a></font></u><font size=3>.
Here are some items of immediate interest....<br>
<br>
(1) C-SPAN "Washington Journal" to cover NMD 8 am Mon and Tues.
Feb 12 and 13.<br>
(2) </font><font size=2>Protest Defense Industry Corporate Welfare
Wednesday 14 February<br>
</font><font size=3>(3) Memorial service to honor Sam Day-Feb. 17, 2001
<br>
(4) Bush team speaks re de-alerting nukes<br>
(5) White House Addresses<br>
<br>
- ----<br>
<br>
(1) C-SPAN "Washington Journal" to cover NMD 8 am Mon and Tues.
Feb 12 and 13.<br>
<br>
At 8am Washington time on Monday 2/12 C-SPAN (the US cable tv news
channel) will have two guests discussing national missile defense -- Dan
Goure of the Lexington Institute and yours truly -- with live call-in
questions and email questions. <br>
<br>
If you are awake then or see this now and want to submit a question,
click: <br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.c-span.org/community/submitwj.asp" eudora="autourl">http://www.c-span.org/community/submitwj.asp</a><br>
<br>
</font></u><font size=3>The following morning the same show at the same
time will address the issue of nuclear weapons reductions with guests to
be announced.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Daryl Kimball, [e-mail]<br>
Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers<br>
website
<</font><a href="http://www.crnd.org/" eudora="autourl"><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>http://www.crnd.org</a></font></u><font size=3>><br>
<br>
- ----<br>
<br>
</font><font size=2>(2) Protest Defense Industry Corporate Welfare<br>
<br>
Date: Wednesday 14 February<br>
Time: 12 noon - 1 p.m.<br>
Place: In front of Reagan Building on 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW,
Freedom Plaza<br>
<br>
The biggest defense contractors will gather for a convention and
exhibition. Peace Action will be protesting the event and the failed Star
Wars (NMD) missile system. Speakers TBA. Come protest corporate greed and
Star Wars.  For more information, call Peace Action at (202)
862-9740.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=1>---<br>
<br>
</font><font size=3>(3) Memorial service to honor Sam Day-Feb. 17, 2001
<br>
<br>
As Matthew Rothschild wrote in his remembrance, "Sam Day, Peace
Activist, Journalist, Lovable Leftist, Dead at 74," "The world
is a lesser place this weekend. Sam Day has died.... A massive stroke on
January 26 did to him what no prison could, what no bully could, what no
police officer or repressive government could." A memorial service
was held in Madison, Wisconsin on February 3. <br>
<br>
You are now invited to join us in remembering Sam Day at St. Aloysius
Catholic Church, 19 I St., NW, in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, February
17. We will begin at 12 noon with a potluck lunch, and the memorial
service will start at 1 PM and close at 3 PM. Finally, there will be a 4
PM vigil at the Israeli embassy, 3415 International Drive, NW., to call
for the release of Mordechai Vanunu. <br>
<br>
Please let me know if you can attend any or all of the day's events. If
you are able to bring a dish, tell me what you can bring. Please note
that the lunch is vegetarian. If you cannot attend, but would like to
comment on your friendship with Sam, please send me your testimonial. It
will be read during the memorial service. If you care to recite a poem or
sing a song, you are welcome. If anyone is interested in producing a
program for the event, please let me know. It can be as simple as an 8
1/2" by 11" paper folded in half.  You may consider
bringing candles and signs for what will be a silent vigil at the
embassy. Sam's last arrest, in an illustrious career as a resister, took
place at the Israeli embassy on September 28, 2000.<br>
<br>
Please share this notice. I can also be reached at 410-323-7200 or
410-377-7987.<br>
<br>
Kagiso, Max<br>
<br>
"I remain an Old Codger for Peace, ready to continue my resistance
to recruit others to the cause." Sam Day wrote this in his
autobiography, "Crossing the Line: From Editor to Activist to Inmate
- -- a Writer's Journey," published by Fortkamp in 1990.<br>
<br>
- ------<br>
<br>
(4) Bush team speaks re de-alerting nukes<br>
<br>
Bush to Seek $1.4 Billion Military Pay Boost <br>
<br>
By Edward Walsh and Walter Pincus<br>
Washington Post Staff Writers<br>
Saturday, February 10, 2001; Page A08 <br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51135-2001Feb9?language=printer" eudora="autourl">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51135-2001Feb9?language=printer</a><br>
<br>
... Before revising the defense budget, the administration plans to
complete three separate but overlapping reviews: of overall defense
strategy, of U.S. nuclear forces and of military quality-of-life issues.
All three are being overseen by Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld.<br>
<br>
The president left for Camp David yesterday without signing directives to
undertake the studies, but the Pentagon has begun them and results are
due by mid-summer.<br>
<br>
Rumsfeld has asked Andrew W. Marshall, an iconoclastic thinker who heads
the Pentagon's internal think tank, to conduct the review of overall
strategy, which will weigh who America's likely adversaries are, how many
wars U.S. forces should be prepared to fight at once and what weapons the
armed forces should buy.<br>
<br>
Marshall, a longtime Pentagon official who worked for Rumsfeld when he
was defense secretary during the Ford administration, has antagonized
many senior officers by arguing that the Pentagon is mired in the Cold
War, is buying the wrong weapons and is insufficiently prepared to face
the threat of a rising China....<br>
<br>
The leader of the nuclear review has not been named. A White House
official said Rumsfeld himself may head that study, which will consider
major cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.<br>
<br>
The Bush administration would like to change or, if necessary, scrap the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow a national missile defense
system.<br>
<br>
Partly to entice Russia to accept changes in the ABM Treaty, the Bush
administration may offer to cut the U.S. strategic arsenal even below the
level of 2,000 to 2,500 warheads contemplated in 1997 by Russia and the
United States as a target for the third round of the strategic arms
reduction talks, or START III.<br>
<br>
The United States spends $35 billion annually to maintain about 7,500
strategic nuclear weapons on land-based missiles, submarines and bombers.
They are aimed at an estimated 2,200 Russian targets, as well as at
China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran and so-called non-state actors.<br>
<br>
During the presidential campaign, Bush talked of revising U.S. nuclear
strategy, possibly including a unilateral reduction similar to the one
ordered by his father in 1991. That statement was "arguably his
biggest foreign policy idea of his campaign and certainly the most
radical," according to one of Bush's advisers.<br>
<br>
In November, before Condoleezza Rice was appointed as Bush's national
security adviser, she described the U.S. nuclear relationship with Russia
as "antiquated." Along with building missile defenses, she
said, the United States could consider "de-alerting" its
strategic forces and rethinking "what size the arsenal needs to be
for deterrence."<br>
<br>
De-alerting refers to taking missiles off the hair-trigger status that
allows them to be launched almost instantly in the event of an
attack.<br>
<br>
"One important factor is that conventional weapons are now so
precise that they can achieve the same results as nuclear ones required a
few years ago," said Richard Perle, an adviser to the Bush
campaign.<br>
<br>
But Perle warned that bureaucratic and congressional hurdles rise up
every time significant changes are contemplated in the U.S. nuclear
force. Unless the Bush administration's review is completed quickly, he
predicted, "it won't result in anything getting done."<br>
<br>
- ------<br>
<br>
(5) White House Addresses<br>
Mailing :<br>
The White House<br>
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW<br>
Washington, DC 20500<br>
<br>
The White House Phone Numbers<br>
VOICE: 202-456-1414<br>
TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213<br>
Comment Line 202-395-1160<br>
FAX: [phone]<br>
<br>
White House E-Mail Addresses <br>
President George W. Bush: [e-mail]<br>
Vice President Dick Cheney: [e-mail]<br>
First Lady Laura Bush: [e-mail]<br>
Mrs. Lynne Cheney: [e-mail]<br>
<br>
If you would like a personal response to your e-mail be sure to include
your mailing address in your message. <br>
</font><br>


___________________________________________________<br>
<br>
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<br>
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<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/" eudora="autourl">http://thomas.loc.gov/</a> (Pending Legislation - Search)<br>
<br>
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<br>
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------------------------------

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #419
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