The Action Site to Stop Cassini Earth Flyby
P.O. Box 1999, Wendell Depot, MA 01380
E-mail: info@flybynews.com

NoFlyby urges NATO to stop the bombing of Yugoslavia. We draw a connection between the shortsightedness in this NATO military venture and the mentality of NASA. NASA continues to deny the potential danger of exposing 5 billion people to radiation exposure from the 72.3 lbs of Plutonium on board Cassini. They ignore the results of the study that they partly financed, which was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in April, 1997, ..that a single alpha particle of radioactive Plutonium when inhaled causes cancer.

A report by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH "On Depleted Uranium Weapons" is posted at http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/10957

An article from Environment News Service (ENS) "End Eco-destruction Yugoslav Scientists Plead" is posted at http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr99/1999L-04-14-03.html

The texts of both these article are also at the end of this Newsletter.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NUKES IN SPACE 2, UNACCEPTABLE RISKS, WINS SILVER AWARD AT WORLDFEST-HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Nukes In Space 2, Unacceptable Risks, a video documentary that tells the story of the Cassini plutonium-fueled space probe, has received the Silver Award at the 32nd annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

The WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the world with over 4,300 entries from 33 countries.

Festival Director, J. Hunter Todd, said, "Nukes In Space 2 is a tremendously important film that reveals the terrible truth of our nation's folly."

Nukes In Space 2, Unacceptable Risks was directed by Steve Jambeck, written and narrated by Karl Grossman. It investigates the Cassini space probe, with 72.3 pounds of lethal plutonium 238 on board, launched by NASA in 1997. Cassini is slated to come hurtling toward Earth's atmosphere on August 17, 1999. The probe will be flying at 42,300 miles per hour, and will come within 500 miles in a "gravity assist" or "slingshot" maneuver so it can reach its final destination, Saturn. According to NASA, if Cassini makes an "inadvertent re-entry" into the Earth's atmosphere during the "fly-by," it will break up, plutonium will disperse and "approximately five billion of the estimated 7 to 8 billion world population at the time ... could receive 99 percent or more of the radiation exposure." The documentary also reports on NASA's planned future plutonium missions, and investigates the U.S. military's aim to "control space" and the Earth below with space-based nuclear-powered weaponry.

Information to order Nukes in Space 2: Unacceptable Risks is posted at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/ref/nuk2ord.htm

NoFlyby will send promotional copies of the video to any government or media representatives, community access television or other nonprofit organizations before June 24, 1999. Send an email to info@flybynews.com

For further information call EnviroVideo:

Steve Jambeck 718-318-8045
Karl Grossman 516-725-2858

June 12, 1999
CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS TO CANCEL CASSINI'S EARTH FLY-BY

The Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space have announced a demonstration to be held at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday, June 12, 1999, that will call for a cancellation of the planned August, 1999 earth fly-by of the Cassini plutonium spacecraft.

We are urging concerned citizens globally to join us on this date by holding Cancel Cassini actions in your communities.

It is crucial that we move together on an international scale to insist that missions like Cassini that carry radioactive power sources not be allowed to put the health of the planet in jeopardy.

In the years to come NASA is planning more missions that will be powered by plutonium. In addition NASA is planning nuclear powered mining colonies on the moon and Mars and work is now on-going at Los Alamos Labs (New Mexico) and at the University of Florida to build nuclear powered rockets to Mars, with nuclear reactors as engines. The Air Force is also working on nuclear power for space weapons as part of their "Master of Space" plan for the future.

The time has come for us to look at the kind of seed that we carry off this planet into space. The bad seed of war, environmental contamination and greed must not be launched into the heavens.

Please join us by organizing an action in your community on June 12. Please also let us know, by contacting the Global Network at PO Box 90083, Gainesville, Fl 32607 or via e-mail at globenet@afn.org about your plans.

For peace in space,
Bruce K. Gagnon (Coordinator) Global Network
Carol Mosley (Coordinator) Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice (FCPJ)

NOTE:
Check out the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space's new Internet Website: http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/

In response to this call NoFlyby is sponsoring an action in Northampton, Massachusetts at 3:00 P.M. on Saturday June 12, 1999 and in Sunderland, MA at 8:00 P.M. with music and the video, "Nukes in Space 2" at the Java Hut Cafe (413)665-2255. For more information contact Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com

Remember to voice your concern to the White House and NASA.

Check http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/action/callnow.htm for more information.

The White House opinion line phone number is: (202) 456-1111
President Clinton president@whitehouse.gov
Director of NASA, Dan Goldin dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov

If you received this NoFlyby email by mistake and wish to be removed from our list, please reply with "remove" in the subject field. To subscribe from another address to the NoFlyby list, write "subscribe" in the subject field.

Also, email us if you're interested in receiving the "NoFlyby Feedback" updates, which are more frequent and less formal emails coming and going from the NoFlyby site. If you want to get these, just reply with "subscribe noflyby feedback."

Please check "Actions to Stop the Flyby" at http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby/action/index.htm for more ideas in helping to save our world from the Cassini threat. Your actions can make a big difference.

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Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium [DU] Weapons
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/10957

Rosalie Bertell, Ph. D., GNSH, Canadian Epidemiologist, whose specialty is in higher mathematics, with applications in the radiobiology and the biomedical sciences says:

Depleted (DU) uranium is one of the largest categories of radioactive waste produced for the nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor industry. It is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter which is very dangerous when taken internally.

When used in war, the DU bursts into flame from the impact when it hits a target. It can pierce tanks and armoured cars, releasing inside of them a deadly radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It can travel in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be stirred up in dust and resuspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly, the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years, irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic can also be swallowed and do damage to the gastro-intestinal tract. In time, it penetrates the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. It can be stored in liver, kidney, bone or other tissues, again for years, irradiating all of the delicate tissues located near its storage place. It can effect the blood, which is the basis of our immune system, and do damage to the renal system as it is eventually excreted in the urine. It can also initiate cancer or promote cancers which have been initiated by other cancinogens.

Dr. Bertell refers to a 1998 WHO study of increasing cancer rates, especially leukemia in young children, in southern Iraq where most of the war took place and notes that thousands of veterans of the Iraq War are recognized as seriously ill with an unknown syndrome, and, she says, we have been able to document DU in their urine as late as 7 or 8 years after the war. There is no natural source of DU to explain this phenomena!

It is imperative that we all denounce this radiation and toxicchemical warfare! It has now been used by the US and Britain against Iraq and in Bosnia. It is now being used in Kosovo (NATO announcement in Europe, 30 March 1999). It has been condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Tribunal (August 1996 Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities). The Human Rights Commission has requested that the Secretary General prepare a written report on DU and certain other weapons of mass destruction (Resolution 1997/36, which also established a UN Rapporteur to take over the study of DU and other weapons of mass destruction on behalf of the UN). The damage being done will not only cause incredible and unending suffering to today's victims, but the genetic damage it may cause can be passed on to their offspring. Such weapons and war itself need to be condemned as utter barbarianism!

This is certainly not to be interpreted as condoning so called ethnic cleasing or any of the nationalistic actions of the Yugoslav government. She concludes: " This Kosovo action is resulting from deep seated conflicting ideas of "World Order" - that proposed by NATO's vision of itself as a world police force, and that of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) which sees security rising out of honest cooperation and legal resolution of conflicting opinions."

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APRIL 14, 1999

Subject: End Eco-destruction Yugoslav Scientists Plead
Author/Origin: Environment News Service (ENS)
URL : For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr99/1999L-04-14-03.html

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, April 14, 1999 (ENS) - Scientists are warning that the NATO bombs being dropped on Yugoslavia are destroying not just military targets but the entire ecology of the region. One of the healthiest areas in Europe is turning into an environment hazardous for human health as land and water are being irreversibly polluted, they report.

Especially vulnerable are the underground waters, says [Dr.] Momir Komatina, author of 12 books and over 260 scientific essays on subterranean waters. "The pollution of water resources in the wide area of NATO bombing is not damaging just for our country but for the Balkans and a part of the South Europe as well, especially for the countries in the Black Sea area.... He says Yugoslavia is full of numerous aquifers containing major or minor subterranean water reserves including mineral, thermo-mineral and top-quality boiling water.

The press release also quotes Dr. Radoje, agronomist and member of the Programme Council of The New Green Party in Belgrade: "By burning down enormous quantities of naptha and its derivatives more than a hundred highly toxic chemical compounds that pollute water, air and soil are released. When these three elementary conditions of life are endangered, the basis of life for all the people on the Balkan Peninsula as well as those in the neighbouring regions is also in danger".

Dr. Radoja [also] points out that "the NATO bombing" ...[will prevent ] "the planting of 2.5 million hectares of land..". "The lack of fuel for agricultural machines will have catastrophic results, because it leads to hunger of the entire population. When you add to this the poisoning of the water, air, and soil catastrophe becomes a cataclysm".

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