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From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #488 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Monday, November 19 2001 Volume 01 : Number 488 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 01:29:34 -0500 From: Alan Haber <megiddo@umich.edu> Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) "A call to arms control"/crawford thank you john for forwarding this "call"=20 my own confession, as the great crawford ranch summit commences: i lament my failure sufficiently to persevere to gather a global movement presence there, to advance such calls for peace as this, and many others, in the face of the masters of war, and in the eye and ear of the so called media waiting there for news. my attention, as others, was hijacked by the hijacking and beside trying to keep my woodshop and work functioning and bread on the table, the needs of a rapidly growing outreaching peace movement here and on going campaigns like keeping space for peace, israel and palestine, and a writing project and megiddo have over occupied my attention.=20 i am also disappointed that the organized peace and justice, anti-nuclear, anti-militarist, pro-international law, cooperation etc. organizations did not somehow pick up on this golden opportunity for a humanitarian, non-governmental network effort to take the message to the man on this occasion.=20 there should have been some funding, some process in the movement-network-coalition-campaign to say let's go for it. and there should be in the future for whatever some future it might be, some it of direct action or dramatic intervention. =20 mostly i'm sorry i didn't do more to keep focused and it would have been interesting in the current setting to try to get a message to the man.=20 as the press agents applaud massive "reductions" in nuclear weapons, the voice for "abolition" should be raised, that these weapons don't benefit, get rid of them all, and don't start in their place new weapons systems, star wars weapons, moving the money to control space to control the entire earth, bases for a military encirclement of china, etc. give it up, go for an end of war and a real alliance for peace and justice. people all over are struggling for answers. many, maybe most know in their heart of hearts that things aren't right. there is a hunger for a picture of an alternative, a positive practical program, increasing security, prosperity and freedom, more effective than militarism and murder, called war. the culture of peace has been trumped by blood and violence. armed struggle was almost a thing of the past. maybe this grand alliance against terrorism could become a real global force for democracy and liberation, turning on its masters as it were, and limiting the military front, and increasing the political and diplomatic forces. i try and keep hopeful, but it looks like hard hearted thin lipped fascists making their move in washington, abridging rights, ignoring freedoms, making an us or them, for us or against us division in the world, asserting domination, chilling politics and foreboding dark times indeed. anyhow i thought i would write something in contributing to the great crawford texas summit. i prey the powers that be have a turn of heart and actually consider what they might do for peace.=20 hoping you, and all on this list, are well. maybe our network should have a conference call soon.=20 alan haber John Burroughs wrote: >=20 > ----------------------------------------------------------- > Washington Times, November 12, 2001 >=20 > A CALL TO ARMS CONTROL >=20 > Jim Wurst > ----------------------------------------------------------- >=20 > It seems like some distant past (in fact it was July of this > year) when the United States tied the U.N. conference on > curbing small arms into knots by insisting it was a threat > to the Second Amendment. That same month, the United States > turned its back on 10 years of negotiations on a protocol on > compliance with the ban on biological weapons, saying the > agreement would put national security and confidential > business information at risk. In February, during a U.N. > debate on a proposed international conference to combat > terrorism, the U.S. delegate said such a conference would > have no practical benefits. >=20 > Conservatives welcomed these and similar moves, > including rejections of agreements on the nuclear test ban, > global warming and the International Criminal Court, arguing > that "parchment barriers" cannot provide real safety or > advantage. >=20 > The Bush administration has now discovered > multilateralism when it comes to combating terrorism, > working with the U.N. Security Council to create instant > global law requiring states to suppress financing of > terrorist operations and deny haven to terrorists. At two > upcoming conferences, it would be a historic mistake and > disservice to the victims of terrorism to ignore vital > issues of arms control and disarmament. >=20 > "It is hard to imagine how the tragedy of September 11 > could have been worse," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan > said during the recent debate on terrorism. "Yet the truth > is that a single attack involving a nuclear or biological > weapon could have killed millions. While the world was > unable to prevent the September 11 attacks, there is much we > can do to help prevent future terrorist acts carried out > with weapons of mass destruction." >=20 > One good place to start is at the Nov. 19-26 > conference in Geneva, which will review implementation of > the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. The treaty bans > development and possession of the weapons but lacks any > verification mechanisms. Most countries, including the > United States, are parties. No doubt prompted in part by the > anthrax incidents, the Bush administration is now proposing > that governments adopt national legislation criminalizing > biological weapons development with provisions for > prosecution or extradition. It is also urging the United > Nations to establish procedures for investigating suspicious > outbreaks or allegations of biological weapons use and other > treaty compliance concerns. >=20 > These are important elements of the compliance > protocol the United States repudiated in July. But the Bush > administration must accept the necessity of embedding these > requirements in a formal international agreement rather than > in easily disregarded ad hoc arrangements, and of reviving > other essential elements of the protocol, including regular > inspections of pharmaceutical, "biodefense" and other > facilities that could be put to weapons purposes. >=20 > Another important forum is the Nov. 11-13 U.N. > conference on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. While there > about a dozen countries whose ratification of the treaty is > needed for it to become legally binding, U.S. approval is > far and away the most important. Other approvals will come > sooner or later once the United States commits, including > from India and Pakistan. Following a spectacularly > abbreviated and uninformed "debate" in the fall of 1999, the > Senate rejected ratification. Now credible concerns are > heard concerning destabilization of nuclear-armed Pakistan > and efforts of the al Qaeda network to obtain nuclear > explosive materials. In this context, the insanity of the > United States standing in the way of a global test-ban > regime =97 equipped with seismological and other means > capable of detecting militarily significant nuclear > explosions anywhere in the world =97 becomes all too evident. >=20 > While on record opposing ratification and not even > scheduled to attend next week's conference, the > administration says it will continue the U.S. moratorium on > tests, and after September 11 rebuffed suggestions from the > Energy Department that readiness for resumption of testing > be boosted. However, the Bush administration has not even > attempted to reconcile its opposition to the test-ban treaty > with the U.S. promises in 1995 and 2000 to the parties to > the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to ratify the treaty and > eliminate nuclear arsenals. >=20 > At the heart of issues relating to biological and > nuclear weapons is the simple belief that while it is > acceptable, even desirable, that a few "responsible" > countries possess weapons of mass destruction, everyone else > must be shackled. This is logically, morally and legally > unsustainable. The United States must lead the way in > stripping the veil of legitimacy from these weapons for > their global control and elimination to be successful. >=20 > Jim Wurst is program director for the New York-based > Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy. > ----------------------------------------------------------- > (http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20011112-22134912.htm) >=20 > Copyright (c) 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All > rights reserved. >=20 > John Burroughs, Executive Director > Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy > 211 E. 43d St., Suite 1204 > New York, New York 10017 USA > tel: +1 212 818 1861 fax: 818 1857 > e-mail: johnburroughs@lcnp.org > website: www.lcnp.org - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 10:53:59 -0500 From: Thomas <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Americans Will Get A Chance to Quiz Putin TONIGHT 7:30 pm EST - mailto:putin@npr.org - --=====================_266154157==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Americans Will Get A Chance to Quiz Putin NPR's Exclusive Chat Includes a Caller Q&A E-mail questions to Putin at mailto:putin@npr.org By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 14, 2001; Page C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24478-2001Nov13?language=printer Vladimir Putin will grant an exclusive interview to National Public Radio tomorrow night, hours before the visiting Russian leader concludes his summit with President Bush and flies home. After the one-on-one with NPR's Robert Siegel, Putin will answer telephone and e-mail questions from listeners, following the lead of Bill Clinton, who fielded caller questions on a Moscow radio and television talk show during his visit last year to Russia. "It's a great coup," said Kevin Klose, NPR president and former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1977 to 1981. Klose was instrumental in closing the deal with Putin's people, which has been in the works for the past month. "This is the first time, aside from Khrushchev's travels across the U.S., for the serious possibility of voice-to-voice exchange" with a Russian chief of state, Klose said. "It's amazing -- the president of the Russian Federation being questioned directly by individual citizens of the United States." Klose read Putin's October speech to NATO in Brussels, in which he said the Sept. 11 terror attacks radically shifted global politics and will bring Russia into closer cooperation with the West. Afterward, Klose made his pitch to the Russian Embassy in Washington. "We told them that, if this summit is truly a waypoint on this path, then the way to present that most seriously to the people of the U.S. is through NPR," Klose said. Putin sat for an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters earlier this month at the Kremlin, but this is his only one-on-one interview during his trip here. The interview and listener questions should occupy about an hour, Klose said. There are no ground rules for the interview, he added. A call late yesterday to the Russian Embassy press office was not returned. Veteran "All Things Considered" host Siegel -- who was NPR's first foreign correspondent 21 years ago -- drew the assignment for the interview, which will be held at NPR's Manhattan studios at 7:30 p.m. One interpreter will translate questions into Russian for Putin, and another will translate Putin's answers into English. "They told me last Thursday, 'You're doing the interview with Putin,'" Siegel said. "I was quite surprised and quite delighted." Siegel is boning up by reading "First Person," a collection of interviews with Putin; plowing through a "tremendous number of clips" and picking the brains of former and current NPR Moscow correspondents. The news dictates that Siegel will ask the Russian president about the U.S.-Russian alliance in the Afghanistan campaign, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, possible Russian membership in NATO, Putin's history as a KGB officer and so on. But Siegel wants to get personal, too. "I am curious about the man," Siegel said. "He is a very controlled, smart person, someone who seems to have navigated the bureaucracy incredibly shrewdly. And he's a very tough guy. He's someone who's learned discipline by fighting, by judo." Listeners can submit e-mail questions to Putin at mailto:putin@npr.org. - -- http://www.npr.org/ -- The first-ever U.S. meeting between Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin has focused on arms reductions, anti-terrorism measures, and the two leaders' deepening rapport. To cap his three-day visit, Putin will answer Americans' questions in a national call-in show on NPR, Thursday Nov. 15 at 7:30pm ET, 4:30pm PT. mailto:putin@npr.org ___________________________________________________ Today's News and Archives: http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm Submit URL/Article: mailto:NucNews@onelist.com OneList Archives: http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews (subscribe online) Other Excellent News-Collecting Sites - DOE Watch - http://www.egroups.com/group/doewatch Downwinders - http://www.egroups.com/group/downwinders Quick Route to U.S. Congress: http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm (Senators' Websites) http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html (Representatives' Websites) http://thomas.loc.gov/ (Pending Legislation - Search) Online Petition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - http://www.PetitionOnline.com/prop1/petition.html Subscribe to NucNews Briefs: mailto:prop1@prop1.org Distributed without payment for research and educational purposes only, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. - --=====================_266154157==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> Americans Will Get A Chance to Quiz Putin NPR's Exclusive Chat Includes a Caller Q&A E-mail questions to Putin at <a href="mailto:putin@npr.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:putin@npr.org</a> By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 14, 2001; Page C01 <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24478-2001Nov13?language=printer" eudora="autourl">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24478-2001Nov13?language=printer</a> Vladimir Putin will grant an exclusive interview to National Public Radio tomorrow night, hours before the visiting Russian leader concludes his summit with President Bush and flies home. After the one-on-one with NPR's Robert Siegel, Putin will answer telephone and e-mail questions from listeners, following the lead of Bill Clinton, who fielded caller questions on a Moscow radio and television talk show during his visit last year to Russia. "It's a great coup," said Kevin Klose, NPR president and former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1977 to 1981. Klose was instrumental in closing the deal with Putin's people, which has been in the works for the past month. "This is the first time, aside from Khrushchev's travels across the U.S., for the serious possibility of voice-to-voice exchange" with a Russian chief of state, Klose said. "It's amazing -- the president of the Russian Federation being questioned directly by individual citizens of the United States." Klose read Putin's October speech to NATO in Brussels, in which he said the Sept. 11 terror attacks radically shifted global politics and will bring Russia into closer cooperation with the West. Afterward, Klose made his pitch to the Russian Embassy in Washington. "We told them that, if this summit is truly a waypoint on this path, then the way to present that most seriously to the people of the U.S. is through NPR," Klose said. Putin sat for an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters earlier this month at the Kremlin, but this is his only one-on-one interview during his trip here. The interview and listener questions should occupy about an hour, Klose said. There are no ground rules for the interview, he added. A call late yesterday to the Russian Embassy press office was not returned. Veteran "All Things Considered" host Siegel -- who was NPR's first foreign correspondent 21 years ago -- drew the assignment for the interview, which will be held at NPR's Manhattan studios at 7:30 p.m. One interpreter will translate questions into Russian for Putin, and another will translate Putin's answers into English. "They told me last Thursday, 'You're doing the interview with Putin,'" Siegel said. "I was quite surprised and quite delighted." Siegel is boning up by reading "First Person," a collection of interviews with Putin; plowing through a "tremendous number of clips" and picking the brains of former and current NPR Moscow correspondents. The news dictates that Siegel will ask the Russian president about the U.S.-Russian alliance in the Afghanistan campaign, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, possible Russian membership in NATO, Putin's history as a KGB officer and so on. But Siegel wants to get personal, too. "I am curious about the man," Siegel said. "He is a very controlled, smart person, someone who seems to have navigated the bureaucracy incredibly shrewdly. And he's a very tough guy. He's someone who's learned discipline by fighting, by judo." Listeners can submit e-mail questions to Putin at <a href="mailto:putin@npr.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:putin@npr.org</a>. - -- <a href="http://www.npr.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.npr.org/</a> -- The first-ever U.S. meeting between Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin has focused on arms reductions, anti-terrorism measures, and the two leaders' deepening rapport. To cap his three-day visit, Putin will answer Americans' questions in a national call-in show on NPR, Thursday Nov. 15 at 7:30pm ET, 4:30pm PT. <a href="mailto:putin@npr.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:putin@npr.org</a> ___________________________________________________ Today's News and Archives: <a href="http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm</a> Submit URL/Article: <a href="mailto:NucNews@onelist.com" eudora="autourl">mailto:NucNews@onelist.com</a> OneList Archives: <a href="http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews" eudora="autourl">http://www.onelist.com/archive/NucNews</a> (subscribe online) Other Excellent News-Collecting Sites - DOE Watch - <a href="http://www.egroups.com/group/doewatch" eudora="autourl">http://www.egroups.com/group/doewatch</a> Downwinders - <a href="http://www.egroups.com/group/downwinders" eudora="autourl">http://www.egroups.com/group/downwinders</a> Quick Route to U.S. Congress: <a href="http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm" eudora="autourl">http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm</a> (Senators' Websites) <a href="http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html</a> (Representatives' Websites) <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/" eudora="autourl">http://thomas.loc.gov/</a> (Pending Legislation - Search) Online Petition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/prop1/petition.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.PetitionOnline.com/prop1/petition.html</a> Subscribe to NucNews Briefs: <a href="mailto:prop1@prop1.org" eudora="autourl">mailto:prop1@prop1.org</a> Distributed without payment for research and educational purposes only, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. </html> - --=====================_266154157==_.ALT-- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 09:50:05 -0500 From: John Burroughs <johnburroughs@lcnp.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Acronym CTBT conference summary High Level CTBT Meeting "Successful" despite US Boycott. Rebecca Johnson, The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy The Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT closed on Tuesday November 13, 2001 after unanimously adopting its final declaration. The declaration, which had been negotiated over many months in Vienna, highlighted the importance of the CTBT for non-proliferation and international security, stressing that the conduct of nuclear explosions "constitutes a serious threat to global efforts towards nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation". The Declaration called on all states that have not yet signed or ratified the Treaty to do so as soon as possible. Pending entry into force, all were enjoined to maintain the current moratoria on nuclear testing. The Conference (known also as the Article XIV Conference, after the entry-into-force provision in the CTBT), was postponed from September 25. It was opened on November 11 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said "If anyone thinks that [the CTBT and the Conference] have been overshadowed or marginalised by the events of 11 September and their aftermath=85 those events should have made it clear to everyone that we cannot afford further proliferation of nuclear weapons." Annan concluded, telling the meeting "we have a fleeting opportunity to render this troubled world a safer place, free of the threat of nuclear weapons. We must not let it pass."=20 Ambassador Olga Pellicer, speaking on behalf of the Conference President, Miguel Mar=EDn Bosch, Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico, told an end-of-conference press briefing that the meeting had been "a success, because of high level attendance, with more than 50 Foreign Ministers, all of whom reiterated their support for the CTBT=85 and its verification= system." The CTBT Conference, which ran for two and a half days, was attended by 108 states which have signed the Treaty and a small number of observers and non-governmental organisations. Of the 80 national or group statements made in support of the test ban treaty, 52 were made by Foreign Ministers or equivalent senior government officials. The United States, however, was conspicuously absent. During the three months prior to the meeting, some 13 additional states had ratified the CTBT, bringing the total number of ratifiers to 87. On the last day of the conference, Libya, which refused to vote in favour of the Treaty in 1996 and therefore attended the Article XIV Conference as an observer, announced that it had decided to accede and would be signing the Treaty forthwith. Press coverage on Monday hooked stories about the CTBT Conference, held in the shadow of the high level UN General Assembly debate among state presidents and foreign ministers, the war against terrorism, and a further plane crash in New York, on the US boycott. Ironic, therefore, that the test ban meeting was given unexpected (but much-needed) visibility through the actions of the United States, whose boycott had been intended to convey its view that the CTBT is irrelevant.=20 Just a week earlier, the United States had shocked the UN First Committee (Security and Disarmament) by forcing a vote on a simple procedural decision to retain the CTBT on the UN General Assembly agenda next year. Such decisions are usually treated as formalities and sent forward on the basis of consensus, regardless of whether a government is for or against the subject. After forcing the vote, the United States was the sole country to oppose. A US representative explained that he asked for the vote because his country "did not support the CTBT", a treaty that Eisenhower advocated but failed to deliver in the 1950s, and President Clinton signed with John F. Kennedy's pen on September 24 1996. All others voted in favour, including India, which had previously voted against the CTBT in the UN General Assembly when it was adopted in September 1996. =20 The United States failed to inform the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs or the CTBT Organisation Preparatory Commission in Vienna of its decision to boycott the Entry-into Force Conference until the last possible moment, despite the presence of Secretary of State Colin Powell and numerous senior officials at other meetings in the UN over the same time period. After the CTBT Conference opened on Sunday November 11, Rick Grenell, a US State Department Official, confirmed "We're just not going to engage". =20 In keeping with diplomatic tradition, few statements criticised the United States directly, though some expressed 'regret' at its deliberate absence; privately many - most notably from the US' own allies in Europe and Asia - were furious at this latest example of US contempt for multilateral treaties and arms control. An earlier announcement (August 21, 2001) by Washington that it would withhold support for, and not to participate in, some of the activities by the CTBTO not related to the International Monitoring System (IMS), was likewise derided as petty and unbecoming of a major power. =20 In general, the statements emphasised the importance of the CTBT to international security, non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament and supported the work of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission and its Executive Secretary, Wolfgang Hoffmann in establishing an effective verification system. Many related the CTBT to commitments in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), particularly the NPT agreements of May 2000, where the United States had joined consensus. Almost all underlined the necessity of maintaining the moratorium against nuclear tests, currently observed by all five nuclear weapon states and, after they each conducted a series of nuclear explosions in May 1998, by India and Pakistan, though neither has yet signed the CTBT. Among the weapon states, Britain, France and Russia have ratified, while the United States and China have signed but not ratified.=20 Amongst all the positive statements about the CTBT, there appeared to be few new or concrete proposals for facilitating entry into force. Few even wanted to name the 13 states whose failure to sign and/or ratify now impedes the CTBT's entry into force. The NGOs, however, in their statement to the Conference, explicitly called on India, Pakistan and North Korea to sign and ratify the CTBT, and urged Algeria, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel and the United States to ratify without further delay. Like the governments, the NGOs stressed the vital importance of preventing any future testing, for fear of destroying the test ban norm and setting off a "dangerous international action-reaction cycle of military and nuclear confrontation". The NGOs proposed that the Conference "should commit its participants to condemn any future testing and call upon governments, businesses and people from around the world to respond to any future test by withholding military sales, trade and other business support from the testing countries." To ensure that the testing moratorium is maintained, it would be necessary for potential violators to realise that the penalties and costs would be significant. In addition to the US Boycott, two developments were particularly= noteworthy: * Russia proposed additional confidence-building measures with the United States after entry into force, referring to "the possibility to develop additional verification measures for nuclear test ranges going far beyond the Treaty provisions=85 [which] could include the exchange of geological data and results of certain experiments, installation of additional sensors, and other measures." * On the negative side, possibly responding to the US lack of commitment and announced withholding of funds, a few states, notably Brazil and Argentina, raised questions about their financial contributions to the CTBTO, particularly the "burden" of verification costs on the non-nuclear weapon states while the treaty remained in limbo.=20 This brief, preliminary report, written as the Conference ended, will be expanded with further analysis and published on our website and in Disarmament Diplomacy over the next couple of weeks. See the website for the final declaration and NGO statement. Other documents can be found at <www.reachingcriticalwill.org> The Acronym Institute 288 St Paul's Road London N1 2LH, England UK website: <http://www.acronym.org.uk> office tel: +44 (0) 20 7688 0450=20 (tel: Rebecca Johnson) (0) 20 7503 8857 office fax: +44 (0) 20 7688 0451 (fax: Rebecca Johnson) (0) 20 7503 9153 - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 11:46:46 -0500 From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) Please come! Louise Franklin-Ramirez Tribute December 4th, 7 PM (Washington DC) - --=====================_11737197==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Please come! Louise Franklin-Ramirez Tribute December 4th, 7 PM Please note two important events for December. (1) Tribute to Louise Franklin-Ramirez, Tuesday, December 4, 2001, 7PM, University of the District of Columbia Auditorium (Connecticut and Van Ness Metro and barrier-free) (2) Welcome for Victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 7 PM, La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St., Washington DC A high level Hibakusha delegation led by Professor Saturo Konishi is visiting the National Capital Area to voice concern about the proposed National Missile Defense program and to demand the total abolition of nuclear weapons. They will be visiting with Congress, the Bush Administration and Peace Activists. == About Louise Franklin-Ramirez: Pioneer for Peace Louise Franklin-Ramirez, 96, is a lifelong resident of the Metropolitan Washington area who has been active in civil rights, social justice and peace since she was a teenager. During World War One, at age 12, she helped raise money for the victims of the Armenian Holocaust; in the mid-1930s she protested the sale of scrap metal to Japan and Germany; in the 1940s she worked to desegregate the D.C. teachers union; in the 1950s she fought against McCarthyism; in the 1960s and 70s she was a Freedom Rider and protested the Vietnam War; and since the 1950s she worked to abolish nuclear weapons and supported the rights of radiation victims. She has raised consciousness about the needs of native people, and has supported an endless variety of activists, helping to promote their various (always nonviolent) causes. During the 1990s Louise was arrested numerous times for her activism, most recently in 1999 at age 94. Co-founder of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee of the DC Metropolitan Area Gray Panthers, Louise has fostered awareness of the dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities in important ways. With her husband, John Steinbach, Louise organizes the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki Community Commemoration in August at the Lincoln Memorial, and hosts annual delegations of A-Bomb survivors to tell their story around the DC area. Louise Franklin-Ramirez is perhaps best known for her map and database of "Deadly Nuclear Radiation Hazards, USA" (http://prop1.org/prop1/radiated/drh.htm), considered by many to be the most comprehensive catalog of contaminated and potentially contaminated radioactive sites ever published. Born September 28, 1905, Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a graduate of D.C. Public Schools and received her B.A. from the University of D.C. and her M.A. from Columbia University. She was a reading consultant for D.C. public and was the author of the "Basal Progressive Choice Reading Program," an early phonetics curriculum designed to teach learning disabled and dyslexic children. Franklin-Ramirez also owned and operated Georgetown Toys and Crafts, specializing in "developmental" toys. Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a founding member of "Women Strike for Peace," "Gray Panthers," and "Unity In the Community" in Prince William County. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Lewis Mumford Peace Award and the Prince William County Human Rights Award, and in 1999 she received the prestigious " Courage of Conscience Award" from the Peace Abbey in Sherborne, Mass. The Tribute is sponsored by Gray Panthers, UDC Office of Alumni Affairs, Proposition One Committee, and Piscataway Indian Nation Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 10:38:18 -0500 From: John Steinbach <jsteinbach@igc.org> Edited by: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org> - --=====================_11737197==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> Please come! Louise Franklin-Ramirez Tribute December 4th, 7 PM Please note two important events for December. (1) Tribute to Louise Franklin-Ramirez, Tuesday, December 4, 2001, 7PM, University of the District of Columbia Auditorium (Connecticut and Van Ness Metro and barrier-free) (2) Welcome for Victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 7 PM, La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St., Washington DC A high level Hibakusha delegation led by Professor Saturo Konishi is visiting the National Capital Area to voice concern about the proposed National Missile Defense program and to demand the total abolition of nuclear weapons. They will be visiting with Congress, the Bush Administration and Peace Activists. == About Louise Franklin-Ramirez: Pioneer for Peace Louise Franklin-Ramirez, 96, is a lifelong resident of the Metropolitan Washington area who has been active in civil rights, social justice and peace since she was a teenager. During World War One, at age 12, she helped raise money for the victims of the Armenian Holocaust; in the mid-1930s she protested the sale of scrap metal to Japan and Germany; in the 1940s she worked to desegregate the D.C. teachers union; in the 1950s she fought against McCarthyism; in the 1960s and 70s she was a Freedom Rider and protested the Vietnam War; and since the 1950s she worked to abolish nuclear weapons and supported the rights of radiation victims. She has raised consciousness about the needs of native people, and has supported an endless variety of activists, helping to promote their various (always nonviolent) causes. During the 1990s Louise was arrested numerous times for her activism, most recently in 1999 at age 94. Co-founder of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee of the DC Metropolitan Area Gray Panthers, Louise has fostered awareness of the dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities in important ways. With her husband, John Steinbach, Louise organizes the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki Community Commemoration in August at the Lincoln Memorial, and hosts annual delegations of A-Bomb survivors to tell their story around the DC area. Louise Franklin-Ramirez is perhaps best known for her map and database of "Deadly Nuclear Radiation Hazards, USA" (<a href="http://prop1.org/prop1/radiated/drh.htm" eudora="autourl">http://prop1.org/prop1/radiated/drh.htm</a>), considered by many to be the most comprehensive catalog of contaminated and potentially contaminated radioactive sites ever published. Born September 28, 1905, Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a graduate of D.C. Public Schools and received her B.A. from the University of D.C. and her M.A. from Columbia University. She was a reading consultant for D.C. public and was the author of the "Basal Progressive Choice Reading Program," an early phonetics curriculum designed to teach learning disabled and dyslexic children. Franklin-Ramirez also owned and operated Georgetown Toys and Crafts, specializing in "developmental" toys. Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a founding member of "Women Strike for Peace," "Gray Panthers," and "Unity In the Community" in Prince William County. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Lewis Mumford Peace Award and the Prince William County Human Rights Award, and in 1999 she received the prestigious " Courage of Conscience Award" from the Peace Abbey in Sherborne, Mass. The Tribute is sponsored by Gray Panthers, UDC Office of Alumni Affairs, Proposition One Committee, and Piscataway Indian Nation Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 10:38:18 -0500 From: John Steinbach <jsteinbach@igc.org> Edited by: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org> </html> - --=====================_11737197==_.ALT-- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 17:50:06 EST From: ChadAmherst@aol.com Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Sign letter to change US bioweapons policy can you give me Colin Powell's e-mail address. I plan to write him as well as my Senators - Kennedy and Kerry. Chad Johnson . E-mail address: chadamherst@aol.com - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 10:45:58 -0500 From: John Burroughs <johnburroughs@lcnp.org> Subject: (abolition-usa) InterPress story on CTBT and Bush-Putin talks DISARMAMENT: US Supports Weapons Cut While Opposing International Agreements by Jim Wurst UNITED NATIONS, 14 Nov (IPS) - The United States' two-track arms control policy of pursuing unilateral initiatives while avoiding international arrangements has been highlighted by its near-simultaneous rejection of an international treaty banning nuclear test explosions and agreement on deep cuts in its nuclear weapons arsenal. More than one hundred nations committed to the permanent end of the testing of nuclear weapons concluded a conference at the UN on Tuesday, calling for all states to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was completed in 1996 but still is not international law. Treaty supporters are grappling with ways to achieve this goal in the face of the increasing resistance of the United States. The Bush administration has always been hostile to the CTBT, which was negotiated by the Clinton administration but rejected by a Republican-controlled Senate in 1998. But on the same day, President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia announced that they would reduce their stocks of long- range nuclear weapons by two-thirds within ten years. Each side has some 7,000 such weapons; the new levels would be around 1,700 to 2,200. Bush sounded like a dove when he said, "The current levels of our nuclear forces do not reflect today's strategic realities." However, these cuts will not be codified in a treaty but would instead be a series of unilateral cuts. While this may seem immaterial, arms control advocates point out that the Pentagon and National Security Council are filled with officials who prefer unilateral steps since there will be no way to prove that the cuts have been made and that the reductions can be abandoned and reversed at any time. In contrast, the CTBT would be legally-binding and will have a vast inspection system to verify compliance. Not only did the US boycott the CTBT conference but also took the unprecedented step of requesting that its nameplate be removed from its seat in the conference room. This attempted diplomatic snub was rejected by the UN which said since the meeting was for all signatories of the treaty seats would be reserved for all of them. This was the latest step by the US to distance itself from the treaty. Last week during a General Assembly meeting on disarmament, the US was the only country to vote against a simple procedural resolution to place the CTBT on the GA's agenda next year. The vote was 140 to one; even other countries that have not ratified the treaty, including India, Pakistan and Israel, do not want to eliminate the treaty from the agenda. Governments and NGOs argue that much is at stake in an effective test ban. Non-nuclear states test to become nuclear weapons powers and the nations that already have them test to modernise and make them more useable. A test ban prevents both these developments from occurring. The threat of terrorism adds another dimension to the debate. As a statement to the conference by more than two dozen NGOs put it, "Failure to act may lead to a cascade of proliferation events that will enable a future terrorist to use nuclear weapons... The states presently resisting the CTBT are undermining their own security as well as the security of the entire world." Like all treaties, a set number of countries are needed for a convention to become international law; but the CTBT is unique in that it specifies 44 states with nuclear weapons or are capable of producing them that must ratify the treaty in order for it to enter into force. In other words, any one of the 44 can block the treaty taking effect. Thirteen of the 44, including the US, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Iran and North Korea, have not ratified. Clearly regional politics plays its part: Egypt wants Israel to become a party to the CTBT and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Israel is the only state in the Middle East not to be a party to this treaty, thus the only state in the region with an uninspected nuclear reactor) while Israel ties its ratification to its "sovereign equality" in the region. But only the US has made taken a total about face from supporting the treaty to trying to push it off the international agenda. There is a special irony then in the fact that the US continues to pay for the operation of the Vienna-base agency in charge of monitoring the treaty. In order to check against cheating, this agency is establishing a network of more than 300 sites scattered around the world to detect nuclear explosions underground, under water and in the air (about one-third are now functioning). The US is home to 16 such sites. Monitoring sites also exist in other states that have not ratified the treaty including Israel, Pakistan and China. This apparent contradiction can be explained by the fact that all signatories are entitled to share all data, thus the international system becomes an extension of a state's national monitoring system. The US says it will not pay for the more intrusive on-site inspections, but since these inspections can not take place until the treaty enters into force, it is a moot point. (ENDS/IPS/JW) - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" 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. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #488 *********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" 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.