Flyby News Home - Flyby News Archives - Casinni NoFlyby - Flyby Links

Flyby  News

"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"




Nuclear Shadow * Global Warming Admission * 911 Hanging * DOE * Coup

04 June 2002

1) The Big Admission -- Climate is Changing, US Says in Report
2) ABM Demise -- Bombs away
3) DOE Plutonium Generator Public Comments (Due by June 19)
4) The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
5) Jenin -- Time to clean up the battlefield of a dirty war
6) Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers


Editor's Notes:
When J. Robert Oppenheimer saw his handiwork mushrooming over the New Mexico desert in 1945, he quoted the Bhagavad-Gita, "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds." At first scientists were in the race with the possibility that Nazi Germany was developing the atomic bomb, but then they discovered that the military of the US were ready to use it twice on civilian populations near the ending of the second world war. Oppenheimer realized that pandora's box had been opened, and he opposed the development of even more powerful bombs, which resulted in his security clearance being revoked and his contract with the Atomic Energy Commission canceled. While President Truman approved the development of the hydrogen bomb, Oppenheimer found the political atmosphere had turned against him and humanity. Yet, the scientific community rallied to his support and he became a symbol of a scientist trying to resolve moral problems arising out of scientific discoveries. His final years were focused on the relationship between science and society. Oppenheimer retired from Princeton in 1966, and died of throat cancer on February 18, 1967. (1)

Thirty-five years following Oppenheimer's death, Arundhati Roy, looks at the conflict over Kashmir from her home in New Delhi. She states, "..the whole of human civilisation means nothing to the monsters who run the world. What kind of book should I write? For now, just for now, for just a while pointlessness is my biggest enemy. That's what nuclear bombs do, whether they're used or not. They violate everything that is humane, they alter the meaning of life. Why do we tolerate them? Why do we tolerate the men who use nuclear weapons to blackmail the entire human race? (2)

Under this nuclear shadow, this Flyby News issue begins with a startling admission by the Bush administration about the reality of Global Warming. However, there's a big omission in their taking appropriate actions to significantly lower accumulating CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Not even the mentioning of raising the standards of miles per gallon for automobiles. The gluttony for death and erosion of responsibilities continue.

Item 2 is on the ABM demise, including an invitation to celebrate by those thinking that this action by George W. is about global security! Item 3 is more twisting of the truth, and you are invited to comment to the DOE on their plans to generate more Plutonium. Item 4 could be considered an appropriate title for an outlaw Texan: The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush. Item 5 is on the rubble still exposed in Jenin, and why there is little interest in rebuilding. Item 6 is on an article stating that Hugo Chavez said the Coup plotters had orders to kill him.

(1) http://www.inventorsmuseum.com/oppenheimer.htm
Biographical sketch of J. Robert Oppenheimer

(2) "Under the nuclear shadow," by Arundhati Roy
Sunday June 2, 2002 The Observer
http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,726274,00.html

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

1) The Big Admission -- Climate is Changing, US Says in Report

Climate Changing, U.S. Says in Report
June 3, 2002
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

In a stark shift for the Bush administration, the United States has sent a climate report to the United Nations detailing specific and far-reaching effects that it says global warming will inflict on the American environment. In the report, the administration for the first time mostly blames human actions for recent global warming. It says the main culprit is the burning of fossil fuels that send heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But while the report says the United States will be substantially changed in the next few decades - "very likely" seeing the disruption of snow-fed water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes, for example - it does not propose any major shift in the administration's policy on greenhouse gases. It recommends adapting to inevitable changes. It does not recommend making rapid reductions in greenhouse gases to limit warming, the approach favored by many environmental groups and countries that have accepted the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty written in the Clinton administration that was rejected by Mr. Bush.

The new document, "U.S. Climate Action Report 2002," strongly concludes that no matter what is done to cut emissions in the future, nothing can be done about the environmental consequences of several decades' worth of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases already in the atmosphere. Its emphasis on adapting to the inevitable fits in neatly with the climate plan Mr. Bush announced in February. He called for voluntary measures that would allow gas emissions to continue to rise, with the goal of slowing the rate of growth. Yet the new report's predictions present a sharp contrast to previous statements on climate change by the administration, which has always spoken in generalities and emphasized the need for much more research to resolve scientific questions. The report, in fact, puts a substantial distance between the administration and companies that produce or, like automakers, depend on fossil fuels. Many companies and trade groups have continued to run publicity and lobbying campaigns questioning the validity of the science pointing to damaging results of global warming. The distancing could be an effort to rebuild Mr. Bush's environmental credentials after a bruising stretch of defeats on stances that favor energy production over conservation, notably the failure to win a Senate vote opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploratory oil drilling.

But the report has alienated environmentalists, too. Late last week, after it was posted on the Web site of the Environmental Protection Agency, private environmental groups pounced on it, saying it pointed to a jarring disconnect between the administration's findings on the climate problem and its proposed solutions.

"The Bush administration now admits that global warming will change America's most unique wild places and wildlife forever," said Mark Van Putten, the president of the National Wildlife Federation, a private environmental group. "How can it acknowledge global warming is a disaster in the making and then refuse to help solve the problem, especially when solutions are so clear?"

..The report also warns of the substantial disruption of snow-fed water supplies, the loss of coastal and mountain ecosystems and more frequent heat waves. "A few ecosystems, such as alpine meadows in the Rocky Mountains and some barrier islands, are likely to disappear entirely in some areas," it says. "Other ecosystems, such as Southeastern forests, are likely to experience major species shifts or break up into a mosaic of grasslands, woodlands and forests."

Despite arguments by oil industry groups that the evidence is not yet clear, the report unambiguously states that humans are the likely cause of most of the recent warming. Phrases were adopted wholesale from a National Academy of Sciences climate study, which was requested last spring by the White House and concluded that the warming was a serious problem. A government official familiar with the new report said that it had been under review at the White House from January until mid-April, but that few substantive changes were made. Without a news release or announcement, the new report was shipped last week to the United Nations offices that administer the treaty and posted on the Web: http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/publications /car/

.."Because of the momentum in the climate system and natural climate variability, adapting to a changing climate is inevitable," the report says. "The question is whether we adapt poorly or well."

See the complete article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/03/science/03CLIM.html?ex=1024113517&ei=1&en=8e5bda0aed2b0ec9

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

Related Article:

by Molly Ivins 6.4.02
Greenhouse asses
What they know and why they're not going to do anything thing about it
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=13414&CFID=1713378&CFTOKEN=35676566

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

2) ABM Demise -- Bombs away

Bombs away
by Geov Parrish - WorkingForChange - 05.30.02 -

June 12th will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of a United Nations session on nuclear disarmament — and the corresponding massing of astonishing numbers of anti-nuclear protestors on the streets of the world's cities, including an estimated one-half to two million people in New York's Central Park that day. The crowds gathered because, after three decades of the Cold War, a bellicose Reagan Administration had fanned new fears of nuclear holocaust. In this country and around the world, many millions were demanding that such weapons be not just limited, but banned.

With a remarkable lack of fanfare or controversy, on the day after the coming anniversary — June 13, 2002 — the Bush Administration will officially and gleefully bury any hopes that such weapons will ever be limited or their further use avoided.

The occasion is the expiration of the six-month's notice — given by the Peter Sellers stand-in now running the Department of Defense, the Strangelovian Donald Rumsfeld (and his boss, who recalls another Peter Sellers role, in Being There) — of the 1973 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Ever since (literally) taking office, Bush has been insisting, much to the slack-jawed disbelief of the rest of the world, that the ABM Treaty should be discarded entirely as an outmoded relic that no longer serves either the security needs or the technological developments of the 21st Century.

It would be far more accurate to say that the ABM Treaty does not serve the financial interests of U.S. military contractors or the global conquest fantasies of penthouse warriors like Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney. This prospect of having the world's dominant military power walking away from limits on arms control has left nuclear proliferation experts aghast. All this, though the official White House line has received remarkably little scrutiny by our domestic media or by an all-too-loyal Democratic opposition whose Congressional districts are also stuffed with sub-sub-contractors for such weapons.

Such scrutiny wouldn't serve the would-be conquistadors well. Their logic has little to do with American security and everything to do with the free market — namely, the application of capitalist theory to weapons of mass destruction. America wants a monopoly, just as it wanted an A-bomb monopoly after World War II. The assumption is that (particularly with space-based weapons) the United States can keep potentially hostile countries out of space entirely, thereby acquiring complete global military dominance. (And this includes, not incidentally, selling a lot of the component technology and hardware to lesser militaries around the world in the bargain.)

Unfortunately, selling Armageddon isn't the same as selling widgets — for one thing, potential enemies can purchase or build mass death tools a lot of different ways. Remarkably, rather than driving home this point, September 11 only served to reinforce the (visible) White House and Pentagon conviction that only expensive mastery of high-tech weapons of mass destruction — the kind the ABM Treaty prohibits — can protect the United States.

Preposterous doesn't begin to do justice to the notion that, say, the Airborne Laser (ABL) — even if it works — would be able to ferret out a boxcutter in a cockpit or a dirty nuke in a subway station. But punting the ABM isn't simply a reckless and expensive policy decision. Combined with the Bush Administration's mad post-9/11 embrace of the previously de facto U.S. policy of reserving the right to invade countries and replace governments at any time (in any place, around the world), there remains no military guy in any country anywhere in the world who will not want to defend his country against possible U.S. aggression. And what, in the wake of the United States' abandonment of the ABM Treaty, the treaty banning weapons in outer space, and various others, will be the simplest and most effective "defense"? Why, embracing whatever sort of weapons of mass destruction that warrior can lay his hands on — nuclear, chemical, biological, or others yet unimagined. It's open season.

This creates a feedback loop, justifying an infinite U.S. war on "terrorists" and "terror states" (such states being anyone who might use against us the same sorts of weapons we'd use against them). It also opens up — as we're seeing at this very moment with India and Pakistan — the inevitability that, of the various combinations of 190 countries that might not like each other, some pair will face off using such weapons. At that point all hell, quite literally, will break loose.

The calculations of the various Peter Sellers stand-ins running our country seem to add up threefold: first, that the United States will be so dominant militarily that it can keep a lid on everyone, everywhere in the world, at all times, under all circumstances; second, that any human costs incurred in the process (say, a few million dead here and there) are well worth the resulting profits; and third, that this will be seen as so inevitable that most Americans won't object and nobody else's opinions will matter.

The first two assumptions are highly dubious, but the last seems to be holding up fine. This year, there are no millions massing in Central Park, even though the anti-Reagan crowds were inspired in the same amount of time by presidential rhetoric no more appreciably horrifying than Dubya's. With open talk of American development and casual battlefield use of "tactical" nukes, newly aggressive U.S. military deployment around the world, and the lingering image of a comparatively low-tech tragedy that killed a fraction of the number of people such weapons can destroy, you'd think that fewer people would think George W. Bush was stupid and more people would think he was clinically insane.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=13401

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

This following invite was picked-up and sent to various no-nuke list serves:

Subject: [abolition-usa] FW: Heritage Reception on June 12th: ABM: RIP

Edwin J. Feulner, President of The Heritage Foundation, cordially invites you to a reception

ABM: RIP
A Cheerful Wake for a Flawed Treaty

featuring

The Honorable John Bolton
Under Secretary of State
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)
Senator Don Nickles (R-OK)
Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)
Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Representative Curt Weldon (R-7-PA)
Representative Bob Schaffer (R-4-CO)
Representative David Vitter (R-1-LA)
Lt. General James A. Abrahamson
Ambassador Henry F. Cooper
The Honorable Frank Gaffney, Jr.

5:30-7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Russell Caucus Room
United States Capitol

For 30 years, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has served to bolster the policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD) and impose crippling restrictions on the nation's missile defense programs.

President Bush, recognizing the inappropriateness of MAD and the policy of vulnerability to missile attack, announced on December 13, 2001, that the United States is withdrawing from the treaty. This is a decision that will serve to bolster the national security by allowing the unfettered development and deployment of missile defenses for the protection of the American people, our allies, and troops deployed abroad.

Please join us as we mark the occasion when the treaty will lapse. We hope that you will be willing to add your voice in support of this important step forward for the national interest.

(Invitation is non-transferable.)
Please RSVP by phone or facsimile no later than Friday, June 7, 2002, to:
Jeni Harms
Fax: 202-608-6085
E-mail: jeni.harms@heritage.org
Questions? Please call Jeni Harms at (202)675-1765.

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

3) DOE Plutonium Generator Public Comments (Due by June 19)

Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 09:12:35 -0400

[Federal Register: May 31, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 105)]


DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Scoping Meetings for Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Relocation Environmental Assessment (EA)

AGENCY: Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of Intent.

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Department of Energy (DOE, the Department) is announcing its intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) to assess the environmental impacts related to determining the future location of the Department's Heat Source/Radioisotope Power System (HS/RPS) assembly and test operations. The HS/RPS operations include those identified as HS/Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (HS/RTG) operations in prior NEPA documents. These activities are currently conducted at the Mound site near Miamisburg, Ohio. The EA will evaluate continuation of the HS/RPS operations in the currently used facilities (the No Action alternative) or alternative facilities at the Mound site. Alternative sites to be evaluated in the EA include the Pantex Plant (Pantex), near Amarillo, Texas, and the Argonne National Laboratory-West located on the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory site, near Idaho Falls, Idaho.

PUBLIC COMMENT DATES: The public scoping period begins with the publication of this Notice and will continue for 21 days (June 19). Comments received or postmarked by that date will be considered in the preparation of the EA. Comments postmarked after that date will be considered to the extent practicable.

PUBLIC HEARINGS: The Department will conduct public meetings to solicit comments on the consideration of future locations for these operations and the scope of the EA as follows:

June 18, 2002--Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Monroe/Arlington Rooms, Days Inn Crystal City, 2000 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA.

June 20, 2002--Miamisburg, OH, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Carnegie Center, Lower Level Room, 426 East Central Avenue, Miamisburg, OH.

June 24, 2002--Amarillo, TX, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Oak Room, College Union Building, Washington Street Campus, Amarillo College, 24th and Jackson Streets, Amarillo, TX.

June 26, 2002-Idaho Falls, ID, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Grand Teton Room, Shilo Inn, 780 Lindsay Boulevard, Idaho Falls, ID.

These meetings will also be advertised in the local media.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please direct comments on the proposed relocation and scope of the EA, requests for copies of the EA, and questions concerning the project to: Mr. Timothy A. Frazier, U.S. Department of Energy, P.O. Box 66, Miamisburg, OH 45343-0066, Telephone: (937)865-3748, Facsimile (937)865-4489, Electronic mail: Tim.Frazier@hq.doe.gov. For general information on DOE's NEPA process, please contact Ms. Carol Borgstrom, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW. Washington, DC 20585, telephone (202) 586-4600 or leave message at 1-(800) 472-2756.

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

For information to stop nuclear power/weapons in space, contact:

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com

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

4) The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush

Smoking Gun
The 9/11 Evidence that May Hang George W. Bush
By Cheryl Seal
02 June 2002

The Case Against G.W. Bush: a Preliminary "Hearing" in the Court of Common Sense

At the very least Bush allowed 9/11 to happen. But the evidence indicates his guilt involves more than just a huge intentional sin of omission –this now seems certain. So it is ulcer-fomenting to watch him, Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and their PR army try to sell America yet another Big Lie –that they had no idea such a thing as 9/11 could happen...they could never have imagined it in their wildest dreams...they had no specific warnings...there was nothing unusual about the summer 2001 warnings, etc, etc, ad nauseam. I have compiled some material that clearly shows that the above litany is blatantly, arrogantly false. But first, let's hold a preliminary hearing in the "Court of Common sense".

To see through a wall of propaganda and determine what's really going on, one must tune out the spin completely and take a good, objective look at what has been DONE and what the parties involved have to GAIN by their actions. Let's look at the well-documented facts:
For this complete article, see:
http://newsinsider.cjb.net/

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

Related Story:

US rejected Iraq offer to turn over alleged World Trade Center bomber

The United States spurned an offer from Iraq to turn over terror bombing suspect Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. CBS News program "60 Minutes" interviewed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz who said Washington rejected his country's offer to deliver Yasin, who is the US list of most-wanted terrorists for his alleged role in the bombing. "Twice we asked them to come and take him. They refused," Aziz said in an interview transcript.

For this complete article, see:
AFP [France], 03 June 2002
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020603/1/2qje3.html

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

Patriotism Devitrified
by Vincent L Guarisco

As our military apparatus belches onward with the "War on Terrorism," the national news media and other public relation puppeteers are handing out rewards and punishments; depending on what degree of "wag the dog" is needed at the time to take the public eye off whatever the White House deems "a sensitive issue." Misinformation or lack of is the largest form of mass mind control currently available. We're fed what they want us to hear to guarantee our successful behavior modification.

Currently, White House officials, FBI and the CIA are under congressional and media scrutiny for pre-knowledge of the 9/11 attack and failure to pass vital information to one another. I've yet to form an opinion of these investigations because this could very possibly be a political GOP strategy to exonerate everyone before mid-term elections. When you consider our lack of faith for the Department of Justice and other agencies that investigate, it's like letting the "rooster guard the henhouse," or letting the "criminals judge their own cases."

In the meantime our patriotism, fears and emotions are constantly being stretched like an accordion to captivate our acceptance of endless war. They intoxicate us with war's folktale packaged and harmonized like a pentagon style "Barber-Shop-Quartet" laced with "drum-roll" for our percolated ears.

They power-pitch preordained time-released panic for our continued victimization process introducing bogus threats of future planned Terrorist attacks upon American soil. They plant this fearful seed into our lives comparable to placing a "Scare-crow" in a garden while snatching our cherished civil liberties & freedom like taking "tiddly-winks" from a child.

All of this "War Business" is being conducted while demanding our time-honored patriotism in tight-lipped unison for our unquestionable patronage. We have allowed this to continue only because our nation is traumatized and suffering plus dealing with the media head-game.

Although disturbing, we must now resist this unmerciful attack upon our lifestyle & freedom and overcome our fears and nervousness to unmuzzle our voices to breakaway from the restraints of censorship and state-sponsored propaganda. We must regain our deviance for a normal society standard of living; for our children and their children's children quality of life depends on our decisions and action, for they shall inherit our mistakes, achievements or oppression when we are long gone.

It is not unpatriotic to love your country but oppose war, global intervention and not wanting to live under an extreme police state environment. It is not unpatriotic to hold our leaders responsible for their corruption and lies that had cost the lives of thousands of Americans, in fact it's the duty of American citizens to hold those accountable for such treasonous acts! Many have sacrificed their lives in order to protect our civil liberties & freedom, are we going to stand by and let our constitution dissolve before our very eyes allowing those who paid the ultimate price to die in vain? We the people are either represented fairly within the framework of our constitution, or "We the People" are no better off than third-world rogue state dictatorships; the choice is ours…but do not forget that our future generations must endure our choices made here today. Stand your ground as many have done before you!

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

5) Jenin -- Time to clean up the battlefield of a dirty war

Jonathan Cook in Jenin
June 03 2002

United Nations special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen entered Jenin refugee camp on April 18, shortly after Israel lifted its news blackout, and declared the sight of the devastated camp "horrific beyond belief". He was not alone in being appalled.

For the complete article, see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4426500,00.html
Guardian Newspapers Limited

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

6) Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers

Sunday June 2, 5:12 AM

Coup plotters had orders to kill him, Chavez tells lawmakers

Coup participants who briefly removed him from power in April had orders to kill him, President Hugo Chavez told legislators investigating the tumultuous events.

For the complete article, see:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020601/1/2qhq7.html

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
For inquiries or to submit articles, suggestions, and to help distribute Flyby News fliers, please write to Jonathan Mark
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - info@flybynews.com- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Flyby News is a free electronic news service regarding peace in space, human rights, indigenous, and environmental issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------www.flybynews.com-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Email address: