August 6-9 - press clippings

30 Arrested at Livermore Labs - Saying No Nukes! No Wars!

allie — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:35:54 -0400

by Carol Brouillet
Friday Aug 10th, 2007 2:07 PM

Short account of the morning remembrance of Hiroshima, and the subsequent speeches, civil disobedience that took place at the heart of the US nuclear weapons industry.

August 6, 2007 Remembering Hiroshima

Over a hundred of us gathered outside the gates of Livermore Labs to
commemorate the victims of nuclear weapons and war, and to call for
the global elimination of nuclear weapons, starting with our own.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, managed by the University of
California and a consortium of corporations, including Bechtel, is
one of two labs that have designed every nuclear weapon in the U.S.
stockpile and is currently designing a new hydrogen bomb,
euphemistically called a “Reliable Replacement Warhead.”

Jackie Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal
Foundation, said: “Sixty-two years after the U.S. dropped the first
atomic bombs on two densely populated cities, killing more than
200,000 civilians, the threatened first use of nuclear weapons
remains the ‘cornerstone’ of U.S. national security policy. Today,
the U.S. retains some 10,000 nuclear weapons, is designing new ones,
and is pouring billions of dollars into its nuclear weapons complex,
while warning Iran that ‘all options are on the table.’ Who is
threatening whom?”

There was music, poetry, and remembrances. Chizu Iiyama spoke: “This
day, August 6th, is a time to reflect on the madness of war, of
killing thousands of people, destroying and burning their homes and
communities.” She concluded: “When we visited my mother-in-law’s home
in Hiroshima after World War II, she kept asking, ‘Why the bomb?
Why?’ We need to work to stop not only nuclear proliferation, but
the act of war.”

An air-raid siren and a long minute of silence brought alive the
moment when the bomb fell. People lay upon the pavement, to have
their bodies outlined in chalk, as a visual reminder of those who
were incinerated instantly.

Although Americans were told that the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki to end the war quickly “to save millions of lives,”
scholars have uncovered documents, such as meeting notes, that
shatter that “lie.”

Before I joined with 29 other people (including Daniel Ellsberg) in a
symbolic act of non-violent civil disobedience, to be arrested for
blocking entry into the labs, I spoke on behalf of the Northern
California 9/11 Truth Alliance:

"I speak for truth. Sun Tzu wrote thousands of years ago that "War is
based on deception." The largest deception is the self-deception of
rulers who believe that they are superior to everyone else and have
the right to kill and control others. We entered World War II on the
basis of a deception. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deceptions, too.
They didn't drop the bombs to end a war, but to launch a new war of
terror against all people--the Cold War. Aung San Suu Kyi wrote: "It
is not power that corrupts, but fear--fear of losing power and fear
of the scourge of those who wield it."

The global elite are afraid of us, the world's people, and afraid of
the truth. They use terror and fear to try to control us.

The war on terror is a fraud. It is a war of terror against all of
us, and the entire planet. 9/11 has never been criminally
investigated. The director of the 9/11 Commission was Philip Zelikow,
who co-authored a book with Condoleezza Rice and wrote the
"Pre- Emptive War Doctrine." Just as Pearl Harbor was used to create the
National Security State, 9/11 is being used to create a Global Police
State. Now they are promising us a nuclear 9/11; if it happens, it
will be by the hands of those responsible for 9/11. We need a real
investigation to stop the real perpetrators.

The only antidote to fear is courage. I hope that the peace and
justice movements will find the courage to join with the truth
movement. War relies on deception. Truth can stop war. We need truth
and courage, now."

http://www.communitycurrency.org

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From IndyBay

Atomic bombings remembered

allie — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:28:04 -0400

CAROL A. CLARK Monitor County Editor
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Mourners gathered at Ashley Pond Saturday to remember the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The gathering mirrored many held across the country, drawing attention to the controversial events.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay left the island of Tinian for Hiroshima, Japan. It dropped a uranium 235 gun-type bomb, named Little Boy, at 8:16 a.m. Some 80,000 to 140,000 people were killed, with 100,000 more seriously injured.

Three days later, another American B-29 bomber, this one called Bock's Car, dropped Fat Man, a plutonium implosion-type bomb on the Mitsubishi Torpedo Plant at Nagasaki. That bomb exploded at 11:02 a.m., northwest of downtown Nagasaki. An estimated 74,000 people died in that blast and another 75,000 sustained severe injuries.

While Saturday's event spoke to the tragic loss of life, many World War II veterans and others hold the adamant belief that those events saved millions of lives and ended the war.

"So many of my older friends believe those bombs were necessary, that they saved more lives and put an end to WWII," Srinivasan Srivilliputhur said.

The traditional sackcloth-and-ashes vigil took place Saturday. Some 100 participants prayed and meditated as they walked along Trinity Drive from Ashley Pond to the Omega Bridge and back.

A peace rally followed the walk. Speakers observed the bombings and voiced their opinions about the current and future manufacturing of nuclear weapons.

Bud Ryan was one of the event organizers. He called the bombings "immoral."

The Rev. John Dear, a Catholic priest and longtime peace activist, said, "This prayer action is to repent for the sin of nuclear weapons and war-making. We come here to call on our sisters and brothers in Los Alamos to quit their jobs - to refuse to design, build and construct weapons of mass destruction. We're going to keep coming back here until nuclear weapons are finally disarmed."

Daniel Craig is chapter president of Vets For Peace. He recalled serving in the first Gulf War in 1991.

"The use of depleted uranium is a tool in occupying other countries and taking what we want," Craig said.

Saturday's event was sponsored by Dragon Fly Sanctuary, Vets for Peace and Pax Christi New Mexico, which is part of Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement.

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest in the Maryknoll Order, traveled from Columbus, Ga., to take part in the peace rally. He was the keynote speaker.

"What's going on in Los Alamos since WWII - our country has spent over $7 trillion in weaponry - I have a problem with that as a human being, as a priest," Bourgeois said. "I'm going to say 'nunca mas' - never again should we use nuclear weapons."

He called nuclear weapons a crime to humanity.

"It's in opposition to life and the sanctity of life," Bourgeois said. "We can't prepare for war and end war at the same time. We have more weapons then ever before and yet never before are we more insecure."

Bourgeois is founder of the School of the Americas Watch. The organization keeps a close eye on the School of the Americas, which was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001.

According to Bourgeois' website, the institute is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Ga. The site claims more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers have been trained in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics, during the last 59 years.

The website also states that graduates have used their skills to wage war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for the rights of the poor, according to the website, which adds that hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced into refugee by those trained at the institute.

Booths showing anti-war sentiments were sprinkled around Saturday's event.

"I'm here because the last 62 years of nuclear weapons seems to me to be a mistake," said Jeanne Pahls of www.stopthewarmachine.org. "Now we have 1,902 nuclear weapons at Kirkland. It's the largest stockpile in the world. If we're going to have non-proliferation then I'd like to see the lab converted to something else that's good for the environment - and nuclear weapons everywhere disassembled."

The day ended with the symbolic gesture of floating 3,000 lanterns on Ashley Pond at sunset.

From LA Monitor

Hundreds protest Y-12 work

allie — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:24:30 -0400

By: John Huotari | john.huotari@oakridger.com
8/6/2007

Several hundred protesters met in Oak Ridge on Saturday, objecting to nuclear weapons production work at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Five people were arrested at Y-12’s main entrance on Scarboro Road for obstructing a public roadway, part of an annual act of civil disobedience. This year, they chained themselves together and to a barricade, holding a sign that read, “Our New Hope: A World Without Nuclear Weapons.”

“We have come to have our voices heard,” Maryville resident Erik Johnson said at an earlier rally at A.K. Bissell

Park, where protesters enjoyed music, food and a puppet show. “People ... want the gifts of human resources channeled toward goodness for the well-being of all human life and the care of the Earth — rather than for the building of weapons of mass destruction.”

Johnson is a member of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which has been leading the peace protests at Y-12 for 19 years. The protests are held annually around the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

Uranium enriched at Y-12 helped fuel that bomb, the first atomic weapon used in wartime.

Coming from as far away as Sweden, protesters said the United States is violating international law and disregarding the U.S. Constitution by helping to make bombs at Y-12 rather than pursuing disarmament.

“The work here contradicts our commitment to the (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty,” said Ralph Hutchison, OREPA coordinator.

The protesters drummed, chanted, and carried signs and flags down South Tulane Avenue and South Illinois Avenue on their way from A.K. Bissell Park to the Y-12 entrance. Along the way, they scattered sunflower seeds, symbolizing their hopes for an end to the international nuclear arms race.

The five people arrested on Saturday were:

• Mary Dennis Lentsch, 70, of Oak Ridge;

• Elizabeth Velkey Brockman, 44, of Durham, N.C.;

• Mary Ellen Gondeck, 66, of Detroit, Mich.;

• William Thomas Hickey, 62, of Detroit, Mich.; and

• Billie Jo Hickey, 58, also of Detroit.

All except Gondeck were taken to the Anderson County jail.

Some of Saturday’s protesters had walked or biked from Asheville, N.C., while others had run from Columbus, Ohio.

It took protester Lena Feldman more than three days to bike about 170 miles from Asheville.

Her motivation? “My desire to see actual disarmament instead of just refurbishment going on at Y-12,” Feldman said.

She called Y-12 a “crime scene” for its effects on the environment and human spirit, as well as public health, and she said refurbishing nuclear weapons motivates other countries to arm themselves.

For their part, Y-12 officials said they are proud of the work they do, including that done on nuclear non-proliferation as well as disarmament work aimed at reducing weapons stockpiles.

“We’re helping to ensure the national security,” said Steve Wyatt, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman. NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, oversees Y-12.

Wyatt said the nation still needs a reliable, safe nuclear deterrent.

A peace demonstrator holds a sign protesting nuclear weapons during the annual demonstration outside the gate of the Y-12 National Security Complex Saturday afternoon. Law enforcement officers guard the Y-12 entrance.

From Oak Rider

Hiroshima Survivor Yuko Nakamura Marks 62nd Anniversary of the U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

admin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:06:09 -0400

Democracy Now, Friday, August 10th, 2007

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/10/142246

On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the bombing on August 6, 1945. Three days later, another U.S. airplane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. We speak to Yuko Nakamura and Anthony Weller, the son of the journalist George Weller, who provided a first-hand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki.

This week marked the 62nd anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Monday, tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Hiroshima to remember the day. At 8:15am bells rang through the city to mark the moment when the U.S. B-29 warplane Enola Gay dropped the bomb. Residents throughout Hiroshima observed a minute's silence in memory of those who perished. An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the bombing on August 6th, 1945. Three days later, another U.S. airplane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. On Thursday, at 11:02am, two high school students tolled a bell to mark the precise moment the bomb was dropped on the city.

Yesterday we spoke with a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. Yuko Nakamura was a teenager when the attack took place. We asked her to describe that day 62 years ago.

Yuko Nakamura, a survivor of the US bombing of Hiroshima.

Throughout August 2007, in commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan, groups across United States are working to expose the escalating threat of nuclear weapons. Yesterday we spoke with Bal Pinguel, a Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee Peacebuilding & Demilitarization Program. He described some of the actions taking place this month.

Bal Pinguel, a Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee Peacebuilding & Demilitarization Program

As we remember the 62nd anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the attack, General MacArthur imposed a ban on the press in southern Japan. But that didn"t stop one reporter from getting the story. George Weller was one of the most intrepid foreign correspondents of the twentieth century. Weller worked for the Chicago Daily News and was a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and was the first reporter to enter Nagasaki after the bombing. Weller hired a row boat to get himself there and wrote a 25,000 word report on the horrors that he encountered. When he submitted his story to the military censors, MacArthur personally ordered that the story be killed and the manuscript was never returned. Weller later summarized his experience with the government censors saying “They won.” He died in 2002.

Two years ago, Weller's son Anthony discovered a copy of the suppressed dispatches among his late father's papers and unable to sell it to an American publisher, sold the report to a Mainichi Shimbaum, a large Japanese newspaper.

Weller's account was finally published in the US last year as a book titled, "First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War." The book was just published last week in Japanese. > Anthony Weller, George Weller's son, joins us now on the line from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Anthony Weller, son of George Weller, the journalist who provided a first-hand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki for the Chicago Daily News.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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JUAN GONZALEZ: This week marks the sixty-second anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Monday, tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Hiroshima to remember the day. At 8:15 a.m., bells rang throughout the city to mark the moment, the time when the US B-29 warplane Enola Gay dropped the bomb. Residents throughout Hiroshima observed a minute of silence in memory of those who perished.

An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months of the bombing on August 6, 1945. Three days later, another US warplane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. On Thursday at 11:02 a.m., two high school students tolled a bell to mark the precise moment the bomb was dropped on the city.

AMY GOODMAN: Yesterday we spoke with a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. [Yuko] Nakamura was a teenager when the attack took place. She was thirteen. We asked her to describe that day sixty-two years ago.

YUKO NAKAMURA: [translated] On August 6, 1945, it was a very hot day and with a burning sun. From the early morning, we saw and we heard lots of air attacking warning and also lots of American airplanes. I was inside of the factory, but my friend called from outside, saying, “Look, there’s planes, airplanes. It might be a B-29.” And right after she shouted that, then yellow-orange-colored light flashed like a bolt of lightning.

As soon as, or at the moment, we saw the big lightning, and I felt like that big blast is coming. And the blast is contaminated with glass and dust and blew through the inside of our factory. And I was knocked down to the floor. All the little pieces of the glasses is stuck in my body. It’s all over my body, the whole entire body. And it got -- my uniform got red and stained with blood, and I had a bloody nose and bleeding all over my body.

I never actually experienced direct bomb hit, so I thought that was it and the factory I was in has been hit by a bomb. So I thought I should get out of the factory as soon as possible. And I barely made it. And I thought I would die soon. Then, I was told if anything's happened, go to -- evacuate to a big hut behind the town, and I went there. And I saw the blue sky all of a sudden turn into a big, huge cloud, looks like mushroom cloud. And I thought was big devil has covered the sky.

AMY GOODMAN: Yuko Nakamura, a survivor of the US bombing of Hiroshima. Throughout this August, in commemoration of the sixty-second anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Japan, groups across the country have been working to expose the escalating threat of nuclear weapons.

We also spoke with Bal Pinguel, who’s been accompanying Yuko. He’s the coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee. He described some of the actions that have been taking place this month.

BAL PINGUEL: So we had a forum August 6, the sixty-second anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing at the American Friends Service Committee, where Mrs. Nakamura shared her experience as a thirteen-year-old survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. We also had her available for local events. For instance, she spoke with a group of organizers who had a civil disobedience event in front of the Lockheed Martin facility in King of Prussia, just outside Philadelphia. And that was August 6. On August 7, we went to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, where she participated also in an action in front of the Carnegie Mellon University, especially in front of the Software Engineering Institute, which is actually doing a lot of software connected with nuclear weapons and nuclear arms. And the vigil was attended by probably around -- the constant audience was around twenty people, but a lot of people were stopping by to listen to the kind of hearing that Mrs. Nakamura was giving. So, and now we are here in Florence, Massachusetts, actually, to have another event for the sixty-second anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.

AMY GOODMAN: And what is that event, Bal Pinguel?

BAL PINGUEL: Well, we will have a forum, and several organizations in the area are participating. But then in the evening, and in conjunction with a Japanese tradition to commemorate the dead, we will be floating candles, actually, in a pond, and there will be peace messages in those lanterns. And Mrs. Nakamura will also be speaking in front of crowd, who will be assembled for that event.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the significance of this week and Japanese policy now around the military, around militarism, the controversy with the prime minister having to apologize for suggesting that he might have thought the bombing was appropriate?

BAL PINGUEL: Well, we have heard about what happened actually in Japan, where while the people were applauding the mayor of Hiroshima, who is, of course, the leading advocate of the Mayors for Peace, that the prime minister was not getting the same attention from the people. It only goes to show the kind of sentiment that the Japanese people have, in particular in relation to what the prime minister wants to happen regarding Article IX. I think Japan --

AMY GOODMAN: What is Article IX?

BAL PINGUEL: Article IX is basically a provision in the Japanese constitution that renounces war as an instrument of national policy, that basically demilitarizes Japan, no standing army and things like that. And it also implies the nonexistence of industries that are manufacturing weapons. But this will go against the corporate interest of so many corporations, both Japanese, as well as Americans.

AMY GOODMAN: Bal Pinguel is with the American Friends Service Committee, engaged in actions protesting corporations involved with nuclear weapons.

We end today, though, in Nagasaki. Sixty-two years ago yesterday, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. We turn to Anthony Weller. His father, George Weller, is the journalist who provided the firsthand accounts of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki for the Chicago Daily News. Or tried to. We only have a minute left in this broadcast, but, Anthony Weller, can you tell us what happened, how your father got into Nagasaki, how he wrote his report, and why we didn't read it?

ANTHONY WELLER: Sure. He was present at the signing of the treaty of surrender in Tokyo Bay on the 2nd of September, where he and all the other correspondents were told that southern Japan, including the two nuclear sites, was off-limits. And at that point in the war, he was absolutely fed up with MacArthur's relentless censorship of reporters throughout the Pacific theater, and he determined to make his way down there no matter how he could. And he managed to hitch a ride on a military plane to the very southern tip of Kyushu and then broke away from his handlers and sneaked by boat and train up to Nagasaki and presented himself as a US colonel to the Japanese major general in charge and said he'd been sent to gather information.

AMY GOODMAN: Anthony, we have just ten seconds. If could you explain what happened with the remarkable report that he wrote.

ANTHONY WELLER: Well, they were utterly censored. Three weeks of his reporting was censored by MacArthur's men, never saw the light of day, until I found them all after his death in his house. And they have now been published by Crown.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much for being with us. First Into Nagasaki is the name of that book.

www.democracynow.org

We Can't Forget Santa Susana Lab Accident

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:42:18 -0400

Ventura County Star
usana-lab-nuclear-accident/...
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Each August, we are reminded of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Sometimes, if we have a historical perspective, we also think about July 16, 1945, the day our planet and every living thing on it or in it entered the atomic age â€” the day the first atomic weapon exploded in the New Mexico desert.

For those of us who live in Ventura County, Japan is far away, even in our global age. And New Mexico, though closer geographically, isn't a place we can drive to in an afternoon. Simi Valley is another matter. It is very close; and it is our local connection to the nuclear age, though few of us know it.

Very rarely do any of us think about July 12-26, 1959, 14 days when a research reactor at the Rocketdyne plant in the Santa Susana Hills experienced a partial meltdown â€” in the longest nuclear accident in the world, and what has been called worst nuclear accident in the United States.

Though I have been working on nuclear issues for more than 20 years, I only found out about this accident when my friend Carmen Ramirez handed me a copy of California Lawyer in April 2006.

The cover bore an image of a large, greenish skeleton looming over suburban homes and people outside looking up at it. The headline read: "FALLOUT: The legacy of the nation's forgotten nuclear meltdown." Inside, 12 pending lawsuits were listed. I was stunned. I said to her, "How can we forget about it if we never knew about it?"

Not knowing about nuclear stories, even ones less horrific than this, is, unfortunately, a familiar legacy of the nuclear age, and particularly of the Cold War. When the Cold War ended, stories and information suppressed for decades were not suddenly revealed. They come out as a result of journalists such as Kathy Braidhill and magazines that are courageous enough to print them. This story struck me with unusual force because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, not 20 miles away from this plant, and on many summer nights stood and watched the rocket tests soar into the evening sky like fireworks.

Holding this magazine in my hands, I knew that I had been exposed to whatever was released during those 14 days in July.

Arjun Makhijani, nuclear physicist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said in a radio interview about the accident, "Chernobyl, Sellafield, Santa Susana the three worst nuclear accidents in the world in order. But who has ever heard of Santa Susana?"

The people of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel know this information, and have been fighting for more than 25 years to get the truth out. As a result of their efforts, two studies of workers at the plant were completed by UCLA, and last October, at long last, the community report so long sought by them, was completed and released to the public (www.ssflpanel.org). The effort is a shining example of democracy in action.

As the Web site says: "The SSFL Advisory Panel was established by local legislators in the early 1990s to oversee independent scientific studies of potential health effects from the Rocketdyne nuclear reactor and rocket testing site in the hills above Simi Valley and Chatsworth, first of the SSFL workers and then of the neighboring communities."

I encourage everyone in our county to read this report, which fills a huge gap in our local history, and to make comments to the panel, which will consider them before issuing its final report Oct. 15.

Knowing about this report, I was struck by the ironic coincidence of a public comment period, announced by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, on one of its reports about the Santa Susana site. Originally set for June 26 through July 25, it has now been extended through Aug. 25.

Note that the original period coincided with the 48th anniversary dates of the partial nuclear meltdown.

If you read the Notice of Public Comment on The Draft Group 6 RCRA Facility Investigation Report of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Hills, Ventura County, you may be deterred by the lack of clarity of the notice and by the immense size of the report.

Don't be.

What is needed is a thorough epidemiological study of the site and the community, a goal cited by the SSFL Advisory Panel in its report. Such a study is complex and expensive and often resisted by the experts and institutions able to complete them.

If all you do in submitting your comments is to request such a study, you will be doing our community a great service. One of the conclusions of the SSFL Advisory Panel Report states: "The best measures available for providing protection from possible future health impacts associated with continued contamination from SSFL come from a concerned, committed, educated and persistent community. These studies were triggered by the community, and we hope they will be helpful to the community."

The nuclear age opened the Pandora's Box of the atom and, try as we might, we cannot put back what has been released. But we can begin to take responsibility for what we have unleashed.

Let us remember the future generations, the ones who will live in Ventura County seven generations from now. Let us commit ourselves together to finding out the truth about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, cleaning it up, conducting a thorough epidemiological study and sharing the information with other affected communities.

Pamela S. Meidell, of Oxnard, is director of the Atomic Mirror (www.atomicmirror.org) and president of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (www.coastalalliance.com).

Hiroshima Survivor Talks about Experience [KRON TV, Bay Area]

steve — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:00:26 -0400

From KRON TV, San Francisco Bay Area:

"KRON 4's Vicki Liviakis tells us Sunday marks the 61st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Some in the Bay Area remembered the day by protesting at Lawrence Livermore labs. Among those protesting was a survivor of the Hiroshima attack, who tells his story through the voice of a translator. "

Video available at

http://tinyurl.com/nyjzw
or
http://www.kron.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipid1=903321&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Hiroshima+Survivor+Talks+about+Experience&d1=124100&redirUrl=www.kron.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage

Protest marks anniversary of Hiroshima [Livermore Labs]

admin — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:40:10 -0400

Activists picket lab on A-bomb anniversary

By Tom LochnerCONTRA COSTA TIMES

The only nation ever to have used a nuclear weapon in war is also the one most likely to trigger a nuclear holocaust, peace activists charged on today's Hiroshima Day observance along the fence at the Lawrence Livermore Lab..

And an attack by the United States could happen sooner rather than later, said Daniel Ellsberg, the dissident former Defense Department analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times 35 years ago during the Vietnam War.

The gathering, on the 61st anniversary of the day a U.S. bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II was to protest the University of California-operated lab's nuclear weapons research at a time the U.S. wants to punish nations such as Iran and North Korea for seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"US=nuclear hypocrite #1 rogue state," read one woman's placard. "Nuclear disarmament begins at home."

The protesters numbered more than 200, including a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb, Keiji Tsuchiya, who was 16 and in the Army about 10 miles outside the doomed city when he saw an "intense lightning flash" and everything before his eyes went white.

"No words can adequately describe the horror of these weapons that tortured and killed tens of thousands of people by throwing them into infernos in an instant," Tsuchiya, who was on a detail that removed dead bodies of people and livestock in the ensuing days, said in a statement. The statement also apologized for the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and expressed condolences for the Sept. 11 attacks. "That is why we say nuclear weapons are the weapons of the devil which should never be used under any circumstances," Tsuchiya said. "They cannot coexist with humans."

Ellsberg said he believes current U.S. war planning calls for Iran to be drawn into a widening Israel-Hezbollah conflict, eventually triggering an American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities -- likely beginning with non-nuclear bunker buster-type weapons and possibly graduating to nuclear ones depending on the Iranian response.

Bush Administration officials have denied they seek war with Iran and that instead they are feverishly pursuing a diplomatic solution.

"Who's threatening whom?" Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which co-sponsored today's protest with Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, or Tri-Valley CAREs. "The first use of a nuclear weapon by the U.S. set a new standard for acceptable levels of violence in war," she said.

Ellsberg denounced the laboratory's researchers for "working in the role of the hangman," with all humanity dangling from the hangman's post. "They're working on the technology of mass murder," he elaborated later, "for ending life on earth."

Journalist Norman Soloman said the university, with its stellar renown, serves as the "air freshener" to wipe away the "stench ... of global holocaust."

The lab, on its Web site, describes its mission as "ensuring that the nation's nuclear weapons remain safe, secure, and reliable (and) to prevent the spread and use of weapons of mass destruction and strengthen homeland security."

Some passing motorists honked at the protesters in apparent solidarity. A few others shouted support of President Bush.

After the speeches about 150 protesters marched to the lab gate for music, prayers and an Native American purification ceremony.

About 40 Alameda County sheriff's deputies were lined up on the other side of the fence, some filming the protesters as some protesters filmed them back. Eventually, about 30 protesters, announcing they were prepared to get arrested, affixed posters, sunflowers and pieces of yarn to the fence. Ellsberg and several others tossed the flowers over the fence and onto the lab grounds.

Several veteran protesters, including Sherry Larsen-Beville of San Leandro, said arrests at the lab had become "a ritual thing" in recent years, with little adverse consequence other than some time spent in a holding pen awaiting issuance of a citation after which, "you don't hear from them again."

The deputies made no move. A few minutes later the protesters moved away from the fence, proclaiming victory.

"We've shut down the Livermore Lab," Cabasso proclaimed as the group broke into a song, "Peace, salaam, shalom."

"It's always closed on Sunday," said lab spokesman David Schwoegler, adding that a few people were working inside.

About 80 law enforcement officers from the California Highway Patrol, Livermore police, Alameda County deputies, University of California police and the adjacent Sandia Lab were on hand today, augmented by about 20 civilian employees.

No one was arrested.

Source: tm...

Bechtel Takes a Hit for War Profiteering

susan — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:28:01 -0400

By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet. Posted August 4, 2006.

Government auditors who canceled Bechtel's $50 million contract will soon find reasons to cancel the company's $2.85 billion in Iraq contracts.

Peace Activists Take On War Profiteers

susan — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:25:04 -0400

By Gabriel Riocabo, from the July 20, 2006 issue http://www.indypendent.org

The year was 1976. The Shah ruled Iran. The company hired to build him a nuclear reactor was the Bechtel Corporation. Now, 30 years later, Bechtel is sitting on more than $1 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts and is busy building the “next generation” of nuclear weapons here at home. Meanwhile, the current Bush administration, which awarded those contracts, is busy sounding alarms about the Iranian nuclear threat.