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NuclearDangers * DUfilms * LosAlamosBeating
08 June 2005
"Nuclear power, apart from nuclear war,
is the greatest medical threat posed to life on this planet.
In fact, 95% of the total nuclear waste in the United States
has been generated by nuclear power plants. Nuclear waste will
last for 500,000 years, and there is no safe means to prevent these
radioactive elements from entering and concentrating in the food chain."
-- Helen Caldicott1) New Nuclear Dangers - Caldicott, McNamara, Rokke- - The New Nuclear Danger. interview with Helen Caldicott
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear Weapons
- - Doug Rokke - ‘Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower Beaten
Editor's Notes:This issue concentrates on the nuclear issue, as Dr. Helen Caldicott recent book disloses, new dangers are upon us. Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era, agrees: "If I were to characterize US and NATO nuclear policies in one sentence, I would say they are immoral, illegal and militarily unnecessary." This issue also includes a press release and films regarding the campaign of Major Doug Rokke. "I am amazed that fourteen years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and almost ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions that the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test."
So what is new? It all is getting worse and more inevitable for disastrous consequences. But instead of dealing with science gone mad, they are now fiddling with the weather. The US Senate recently passed legislation
S.517 to establish the Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and for other purposes. As noted in Flyby News,
the military has a lot of interest in weather modification, but, they don't know what they are really doing. This new funding-oversight operation is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2005.
Please keep your thoughts, prayers, and support for Tommy Hook, a Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress soon about alleged financial irregularities, who was severely beaten this past week.
1) New Nuclear Dangers - Caldicott, McNamara, Rokke- - The New Nuclear Danger. interview with Helen Caldicott
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear Weapons
- - Doug Rokke - ‘Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower Beaten
- - The New Nuclear Danger - an interview with Helen CaldicottAn Interview with Helen Caldicott, M.D. Author of The New Nuclear Danger
By Dennis Hughes, (Share Guide Publisher).
Dr. Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the author of several books, including Nuclear Madness, Missile Envy, A Desperate Passion and her latest, The New Nuclear Danger. She divides her time between Australia and the United States, where she has devoted the last 30 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age.
The Share Guide: Tell us how you first became aware of the nuclear weapons problem and nuclear power?
Dr. Helen Caldicott: I first became aware of the threat of nuclear war when I read Neville Shute's book On The Beach when I was 15 years old and living in Melbourne, where the book was set. The book was about an accidental nuclear war that triggers the end of human life. This scenario branded my soul. When I grew up, I led the movement in Australia against the French atmospheric tests in the Pacific and Australian uranium mining. Later I came to the United States as a member of the faculty of the Harvard Medical School specializing in Cystic Fibrosis in the mid 1970s, and founded Physicians for Social Responsibility--which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for educating the public about the medical effects of nuclear war. I have written several books on the subject.
The Share Guide: Can you give a brief overview of your most recent book, The New Nuclear Danger, and why you wrote it at this time?
Dr. Caldicott: This book describes the internal, corporate related dynamics of the Bush administration, and the reason it is totally focused upon war, is violating all the international nuclear arms control treaties, and is now prepared in a cavalier way to use nuclear weapons on any non-nuclear nation it so chooses. This is antithetical to the nuclear policies of any previous U.S. administration. The nuclear weapons labs are also engaged in a new Manhattan project: a huge nuclear buildup, which includes designing, testing and building new nuclear weapons. In addition, the Bush administration is engaged in a massive, five-layered Star Wars project which will never work, and which will trigger a new nuclear arms race with Russia and China. This is costing four times as much money as the U.S. is currently spending on the State Department, and could trigger a nuclear war. The danger is new because the hydrogen bombs of Russia and America are still on hair trigger alert as they were in the 1980s, but everybody thinks the nuclear threat of global annihilation has been resolved because the cold war ended. In fact, because of the public's ignorance, the nuclear threat is much greater than before.
The Share Guide: In a recent talk you gave, you mentioned the Heritage Foundation. Please explain what they have to do with the energy policies of President Bush and his administration.
Dr. Caldicott: The Heritage Foundation and other Washington, DC based so called "think tanks" are omnipresent right-wing advertising agencies for corporations such as Lockheed Martin and other military corporations and oil companies. The Heritage Foundation has either peopled the Bush administration with employees of corporations or with their own specially trained fellows. They are determining the policies of this administration, much as they determined those of the Reagan years. The Cheney energy policy was determined after consultation with oil and energy companies--with absolutely no input from knowledgeable academics or environmental groups who are deeply concerned about the rapid progress of global warming and its devastating ecological and economic consequences.
The Share Guide: What specifically are the negative effects of nuclear power, and aren't there adequate renewable sources of energy that we could use instead?
Dr. Caldicott: Nuclear power, apart from nuclear war, is the greatest medical threat posed to life on this planet. In fact, 95% of the total nuclear waste in the United States has been generated by nuclear power plants. Nuclear waste will last for 500,000 years, and there is no safe means to prevent these radioactive elements from entering and concentrating in the food chain. These elements, which are tasteless, odorless and invisible, are highly carcinogenic and mutagenic. Over time, they will induce epidemics of cancer and leukemia. This is particularly true for children, who are 10 to 20 times more radiosensitive than adults, and are therefore much more susceptible to cancer. The nuclear waste will also induce epidemics of genetic diseases and congenital abnormalities in humans (as well as in animals and plants) for the rest of time. This is rather like a process of random compulsory genetic engineering. Because of the quantity of fossil fuel used to mine, separate and enrich uranium, and to build the massive reactor, a nuclear power plant has to operate for 18 years before one net calorie of energy is realized! And the CO2 produced from the fossil fuel adds significantly to global warming. Uranium enrichment also produces 88% of the CFC gases emitted from the U.S., a potent global warming gas and a significant ozone depleter in the upper atmosphere. The production and release of CFCs has been internationally banned in the Montreal Protocol, but the U.S. nuclear industry openly flouts this international treaty. So nuclear power causes global warming, ozone depletion, epidemics of malignancy and the destruction of the delicate process of evolution. Of course there are alternatives. Solar power is ubiquitous but almost untapped because of the political power of the oil companies. There is also enough wind west of the Missisippi to provide the whole of the U.S. with energy. It's worth noting that Europeans use half as much energy as Americans, but have the same standard of living because they practice pragmatic conservation.
The Share Guide: Most people are psychically numbed by the nuclear problem. How can we deal with our feelings of fear, complacency, anger, depression, etc, and take constructive action?
Dr. Caldicott: The only effective way I have found to deal with peoples' fears is through a process of responsible education. That is why I wrote The New Nuclear Danger, and that is why I travel the world talking to large numbers of people about these facts. As a physician, I am obliged to practice global preventive medicine, and my experience has validated the admonition of Thomas Jefferson when he said "An informed democracy will behave in a responsible fashion."
The Share Guide: I have heard the environmental effects of nuclear war referred to as "collateral damage," but nuclear winter could in fact end life on earth as we know it. What actions can we as responsible citizens take in the face of the new nuclear danger? What can we say to people who are in denial of the problem?
Dr. Caldicott: This is the ultimate spiritual and religious issue ever to face the human race. For what is our responsibility to God to preserve the creation and evolution? We are the curators of possibly the only life in the universe and our responsibility is enormous. We must therefore dedicate every waking and sleeping moment to the preservation of creation. But first, action must be preceded by education. We are all physicians to a planet that is in the intensive care unit. The New Nuclear Danger is now the Grays Anatomy for a new breed of global physicians. Learn it and you will become ultimately powerful and equipped with the necessary knowledge that will drive our new crusade for global preservation.
The Share Guide: You have said "We are the rudder that can steer the whole ship." But our tax dollars are being stolen by the corporate robber barons, currently at the level of 400 billion dollars annually. What can we do to change this?
Dr. Caldicott: 400 billion dollars is almost half a trillion dollars, and if one spent $1,000 a minute since Jesus was born, one would have just spent one trillion dollars. Therefore, the amount of money being stolen from the American people by this corporate administration for death, mayhem and destruction is enough to solve ALL the problems in U.S. society--plus feed, clothe, educate and house all the children of the planet, reverse global warming, save all the threatened species, save the tropical rain forests and save the Earth. So the money is there, but the will is not. We must remove the men in charge of the world! For the health of the planet and all of us, we must replace them with wise prophetic men and women who will implement life-giving and life-preserving policies. Millions of people in the United States were involved in the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s. They watched The Day After with dread. Now the people need to be reawakened to the impending threat of nuclear war, and like the tiny trim tab rudder built into the large rudder of a ship, as it turns and they move, the whole ship of state will turn towards life and not death.
The Share Guide: What is your opinion of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository? And what do you think we should do with nuclear waste?
Dr. Caldicott: Yucca Mountain stands on 30 earthquake faults. It is a very unstable area and will not prevent the disbursement of lethal radioactive elements to the environment. Nuclear waste should be retained in the cooling pools of the nuclear reactors, meaning that all nuclear power plants would then have to close because their cooling pools are full. This also means that there would be no more electricity generated from nuclear power. As the spent fuel rods cool, they can then be stored in above ground casks until the brilliant American scientists who are currently so hard at work designing new nuclear weapons are redeployed, inventing ingenious and currently unthought of ways to store their radioactive garbage safely for the next 500,000 years.
The Share Guide: Discuss the attitude in Japan and other nations toward nuclear weapons and nuclear power, as compared to the attitude here in America.
Dr. Caldicott: The Japanese politicians and corporations are pretty keen about nuclear power, even though Japan is the only country ever to have experienced the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. The Japanese are forbidden in their constitution from developing their own nuclear weapons. However, because they maintain huge stockpiles of reprocessed plutonium, they could within several weeks if they so decided build their own nuclear weapons. The Japanese people, on the other hand, are very allergic to anything nuclear, particularly after they experienced several very dangerous nuclear accidents in the last several years in their own nuclear facilities.
The Share Guide: You mentioned earlier that you founded Physicians for Social Responsibility. What are the goals of this organization?
Dr. Caldicott: Physicians for Social Responsibility was founded in 1978, to teach the American people about the medical effects of nuclear power and nuclear war. I, along with my colleagues, recruited 23,000 physicians during the 1980s to join this massive educational campaign. We were very successful in these efforts, and the organization still continues to this day. For more information about the nuclear threat, please visit
NuclearPolicy.orgThis article's original posting is at:
www.shareguide.com/Caldicott.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - McNamara Denounced Nuclear WeaponsPublished June 5, 2005 by The Sunday Times/UK
Champion of the Bomb Recants
by Michael Evans
THE American defense secretary of the Vietnam War era denounced nuclear weapons yesterday and urged the British Government not to develop a new system after the present Trident submarines are taken out of service.
Robert McNamara who played a major role in the formulation of America's nuclear strategy in the 1960s, said in London that the development of new nuclear weapons was "insane and a waste of money".
As The Times reported last week, the Government is reviewing possible options for replacing Trident, which is scheduled to remain in service with the Royal Navy until about 2025. Tony Blair has said he believes that Britain needs to retain an independent nuclear deterrent.
Mr McNamara, 88, whose regrets about the bombing of Vietnam featured in a recent documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, has recanted his former hawkish position on nuclear weapons.
Speaking at a conference, he said: "Despite the end of the Cold War 15 years ago, the US nuclear weapons policies are today essentially what they were when I was Secretary of Defense 40 years ago.
"If I were to characterize US and NATO nuclear policies in one sentence, I would say they are immoral, illegal and militarily unnecessary."
He also described nuclear weapons as "very, very dangerous in terms of the risk of inadvertent or accidental launch, and destructive of the non-proliferation regime that has served us so well over the 40 years".
Mr McNamara, the US Defense Secretary from 1961 to 1968, speeded up the modernization and expansion of America's nuclear weapons and delivery systems to deter the Soviet Union from mounting a surprise attack on the West.
However, in the post-Cold War world, he said that it was important for the US, Russia and other nuclear weapons states, such as Britain, to stop the development of new systems and to speed up reductions in nuclear forces.
Nuclear proliferation, Mr McNamara said, posed the greatest threat to humankind. "North Korea states that it has produced a nuclear weapon and that it will continue to proceed on that path," he said. "Iran seems to be moving in the same direction. If proliferation proceeds, it will adversely affect the security of nations across the globe."
If North Korea and Iran continued with their present programs, Mr McNamara predicted that in Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan would follow suit and in the Middle East, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria would also go nuclear.
He said that the five declared nuclear powers should be required to remove their nuclear forces from hair-trigger alert. Of the 6,000 strategic nuclear warheads deployed by the US, 2,000 were on hair-trigger alert, to be launched on 15 minutes' warning "by the decision of one man", the former Defense Secretary said.
In The Fog of War, he admitted that America had exaggerated the dangers it faced from the Communists of North Vietnam.
He also acknowledged that the US had underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs; and had failed then, and since, to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology weapons.
Mr McNamara became disillusioned by the lack of progress in the Vietnam War when he was still Defense Secretary after failing to persuade President Johnson to stop the bombing of North Vietnam. He left office in February 1968 and became the President of the World Bank.
© Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1640132,00.html###
also posted at
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0605-07.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Doug Rokke - ‘Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action'FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action By President Bush and
Prime Minister Blair & U.S. Congress
FROM: Dr. Doug Rokke, Ph.D.,
Former Director of U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project,
Former Gulf War 1 DU assessment team health physicist,
Confirmed DU casualty
June 2, 2005
[EXCERPT]
While U.S. and British military personnel continue using uranium munitions- America's and England's own "dirty bombs" U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Defense officials continue to deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium. They arrogantly refuse to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care "all" exposed individuals [Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties, DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, Medical Management of Army personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU) Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command 29 April 2004), and section 2-5 of AR 70-48].
They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive Contamination as required by Army Regulation- AR 700-48: "Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002) and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin- TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., JULY 1996)..
..Therefore medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions.
Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay.
I am amazed that fourteen years after I was asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and almost ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and many others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions that the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions just does not even pass the common sense test.
The President of the United States- George W. Bush and The Prime Minister of Great Britain-Tony Blair & U.S. Congress must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions- their own "dirty bombs"- resulting in adverse health and environmental effects.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - New Film - "Beyond Treason" -Government Experimentation On Military & Civilian Populations
This film, 105 minutes reveals the U.S. Government's long history of experimenting on military troops and their own documents that prove it.
* Depleted Uranium Exposure
* Chemical & Biological Exposure
* Experimental Vaccinations
FEATURING:
Dr. Doug Rokke
Director of the U.S. Army
Depleted Uranium Project
Leuren Moret
Geological Scientist and
International Radiation Expert
Dennis Kyne
NBC Medical Specialist
Veteran's Advocate
Joyce Riley, RN BSN
Spokesperson, American Gulf
War Veterans Association
Bob Jones, SSGT RET.
Veteran - Op. Desert Storm
Mark Zeller, SSGT
Veteran - Op. Desert Storm
What causes Gulf War Illness?
(a.k.a. Gulf War Syndrome; Persian Gulf Illness)
Some believe these illnesses are caused by exposure to depleted uranium munitions used on the battlefield. Others believe chemical and biological exposures are the prime suspect. While yet an even larger group argue that experimental vaccines given to our troops, without their knowledge or consent, may have lead to the demise of many of these soldiers.
Is it a combination of overlapping exposures?
A growing number of scientists and respected experts in their fields have been coming forward to share their research and first-hand knowledge of official betrayal.
As ailing Gulf War Heroes from all 27 coalition countries slowly die of "unknown causes," they wait for answers from their respective governments… but no satisfying or even credible answers have come forth from the military establishment. Records that span over a decade point to negligence and even culpability on the part of the U.S. Department of Defense and their "disposable army" mentality.
The VA has determined that 250,000 troops are now permanently disabled, 15,000 troops are dead and over 425,000 are ill and slowly dying from what the Department of Defense still calls a "mystery disease." How many more will have to die before action is taken?
This 105 minute film presents comprehensive and compelling documentation from United States Government archives of a massive cover-up lasting over two generations
Additional bonus CD-Rom contains thousands of pages of supporting documentation, which can be viewed from most any computer via an internet browser (Internet Explorer Recommended)
Hear the testimony of experts and of United States military veterans who demand answers to questions that the Department of Defense will not address
Produced & Written by
Joyce Riley & William Lewis
BEYOND TREASONDirected by
William Lewis
TOTAL RUNNING TIME
WITH BONUS MATERIAL: 114 MINUTES
Theatrical trailer:
beyondtreason.com/media/beyond_treason.wmv= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying children"Another film on DU
by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn --
Produced by Ochowa-Film for WDR, 2004
This award-winning, 54-minute, German Public television documentary exposes uranium contamination on the streets of Baghdad. It documents and analyzes the use and health effects of uranium weapons in Gulf Wars I and II. Filmmakers followed on-the-scene investigations in Iraq by Dr. Siegwart Horst-Gunther, the German physician who first brought out hard evidence of the US use of so-called 'depleted' uranium (DU) weapons during the Gulf War, with Tedd Weyman, head of field investigations for the Uranium Medical Research Center. Filmmakers also interviewed the German researcher Axel Gerdes, who found DU contamination in the New York reservists tested by the NY Daily News, as reported in April and September, 2004.
This film will be presented on: June 14th. from 7:00 to 9:30, at the Unitarian Church on West Street in Rutland, VT. For more information see:
www.uvpeaceandjustice.orgFor more on this film and issue of DU, visit:
traprockpeace.org= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Los Alamos Lab Whistleblower BeatenBy Deborah Baker
The Associated Press
Monday 06 June 2005
Santa Fe, NM - A Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress about alleged financial irregularities was badly beaten outside a bar - an attack his wife and lawyer believe was designed to silence him.
Police and the FBI said that they were investigating the circumstances of the incident which, according to his wife, left Tommy Hook hospitalized Monday with a broken jaw and other injuries.
Police Deputy Chief Eric Johnson said officers found Hook after responding to a reported assault at the Cheeks Night Club about 2 a.m. Sunday. He provided few other details.
"We are working jointly with the FBI, trying to determine what may have happened and what the assault may have stemmed from," Johnson said. FBI spokesman Bill Elwell described the agency's inquiry as preliminary.
Hook's wife, Susan, alleged the assailants told her husband during the attack: "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut."
Tommy Hook and another whistleblower sued the University of California in March, alleging that after they uncovered management failures, university and lab managers tried to make their jobs miserable so they would quit.
Hook, a former internal auditor who now works at another job at the lab, had been scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee later this month.
According to Susan Hook, her husband received a call late Saturday from someone wanting to meet with him at a bar. She said her husband told her the man never showed up, but that as he was leaving the parking lot, a group of men pulled him from his car and beat him.
"They left him in the parking lot for dead," said Tommy Hook's lawyer, Robert Rothstein.
Rothstein said the assailants didn't take Hook's wallet, other personal belongings or car. Without any other motive, it appears the beating was related to his whistleblowing, Rothstein contended.
Susan Hook said her husband did not frequent bars.
Los Alamos lab spokesman Kevin Roark called the beating a "senseless and brutal act and should not be tolerated."
The lab and UC also issued a joint statement decrying the violence. "Director (Robert) Kuckuck, the University of California and the laboratory believe that any form of physical violence toward an individual is unacceptable," the statement read.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601717.htmlalso posted
www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060705Z.shtml
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