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Fiery Hell On Earth * Shoshone Payoff Theft * Sniper


03 July 2004

"Indeed, the Bush administration is actively engaged
in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into
the hands of potentially-unstable nations."


– Peter Montague

(Rachel's News)


1) "Fiery Hell On Earth" environmental research
- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol
2) NASA-Nukes – Comments Requested
- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues
3) Flyby Feedback from "Sniper"


Editor's Notes:


Item 1, "Fiery Hell On Earth," begins where our last issue left off on ‘Nuclear Hypocrisy'. This article by Peter Montague of Rachel's News offers a sweeping intelligent analysis of why ‘the Bush administration is actively engaged in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into the hands of potentially-unstable nations.' Montague offers 5 hypotheses for what may be behind such madness. It comes down (in the last hypothesis) to religion. This warped mentality has thrived in chaos throughout the ages, and was the cause of the ending of the Renaissance era. And yet, while there is still a separation of Church and State, as declared in the US Constitution, one must wonder why: "More than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception this year honoring the Rev. Sun Myung Moon where Moon declared himself the Messiah and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be "reborn as new persons.."'? This article is linked after the first item in this issue. Item 2 contains information on a request for comments by NASA to actively engage or expand their nuclear space program. Yes, it is cool getting nifty pictures from the Cassini space probe, which has recently entered into the orbit of Saturn. Yet the launch, 7 years ago, threatened Florida with contamination, and our entire Earth in 1999 during the Cassini Earth flyby. NASA powers the instrument panel with more than 72 pounds of highly radioactive plutonium for some 740 watts of electricity. How brilliant? Now they want to use nuclear power for more speed? Where are we going with all this madness, and with the nuclear waste and pollution? How important is it to travel in our solar system if we are harming our home base? In the second part of this item, it tells about the nuclear-gold theft of the indigenous peoples' land again by the US government. Please take actions and support the Western Shoshone. The Congressional Payoff Bill passed both houses, and the nuclear dumping at Yucca Mountain will threaten all. The Shoshone are not giving up, they never have. The Treaty they signed with the US Government will remain the basis to reveal their honor and dedication as caretakers of Mother Earth. Item 3 is feedback to a recent issue of Flyby News regarding the Bush proclamation for torture, and comes with advice for me to read the Bible, from someone who signs their name as "Sniper." Is this to be intimating? Yet this individual is not that different from the righteous political left that can only smear efforts to positively influence Senator John Kerry in his candidacy for US President. It is time, even for a corporate representative to be elected again. This Bush dictatorship is a bad influence, and causing such harm that we must rise to the task of making our votes count, for peace, for justice, and the evolving principles of the US Constitution. Be ready, another issue is about to be posted, with more resources and inspiration on the Michael Moore 'Fahrenheit 9/11' impact. It also includes information on Sudan, and an article on possible indictments on those of the Bush administration, which is why we must be so concerned about the nuclear agenda that could harm us beyond belief.



1) "Fiery Hell On Earth" environmental research

- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol


FIERY HELL ON EARTH, Pt. 3
By Peter Montague

In this series, we are searching for answers to the question,

"Why is the U.S. failing to stop, and in some cases actually
promoting, the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide?"

(See Rachel's #792 and #793

Answers to this question will help us understand President Bush's philosophy of environmental protection -- or perhaps the philosophy of his core supporters in the Republican Party on whom he is depending in the 2004 election.

President Bush has made it clear that he understands the threat posed by nuclear weapons, materials and know-how in the wrong hands. He has said, "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."[1]

This was not an isolated statement. In two key White House policy documents published in 2002, the Bush administration concluded that, "The threat of weapons of mass destruction is the highest priority for the United States and should be for other countries."[2,3]

The President has spoken out strongly and repeatedly on the matter and has even said that failure on this issue will be judged "harshly" by history.

When the White House published its National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction in Dec., 2002, the President said, "The gravest danger facing the Nation lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to succeed.... History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act."[3]

Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the U.S. is failing to act on this growing threat. (See Rachel's #792, #793.) Indeed, the Bush administration is actively engaged in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into the hands of potentially-unstable nations.

On June 20, 2004, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a 96-page report agreeing with the Bush administration that, "Terrorist acquisition of nuclear weapons poses the greatest single threat to the United States."[4, pg. 25].

However, the Carnegie report points out, "The [Bush] administration has not put money or significant political effort behind [its] proposals."[4, pg. 13]

According to the Carnegie report, the President's proposed budget for 2005 actually reduces the funds available for U.S. efforts to curb the spread of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium world-wide, and reduces the U.S. financial contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "whose responsibilities have greatly increased while its budget has stayed flat."[4, pg. 13]

Nuclear-armed terrorists are the No. 1 threat to the U.S., and the No. 2 threat is nuclear-armed states like Pakistan and North Korea. As the Carnegie report says, "National instability or a radical change in government could lead to the collapse of state control over weapons and nuclear materials and the migration of nuclear scientists to other nations or to the service of other groups."

However, instead of trying to keep nuclear technology and know-how out of the hands of such states, the Bush administration is actively encouraging U.S. corporations to sell their nuclear hardware and know-how abroad. On a recent trip to China, Vice-President Cheney was peddling Westinghouse nuclear power plants, even though China has announced that it intends to transfer nuclear technology to Pakistan.[5]

These contradictory facts are deeply perplexing. I have been reviewing the available literature on this subject for the past two years, trying to answer the question, "Why is the Bush administration promoting nuclear weapons, materials and know-how world-wide?"

Naturally, all my answers are merely hypotheses because I have no special knowledge of what motivates the President, the Vice-President, their core supporters in the House and Senate, and their advisors in the Pentagon. I only know what's in the public record.

So let us begin. In the remainder of this series, I will examine the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis #1: Simple incompetence and confusion among the nation's defense agencies. Perhaps they actually want to curb the spread of nuclear technologies but just can't manage the task.

Hypothesis #2: Perfectly normal corporate profit goals combined with the ever-pressing need for re-election campaign contributions. Perhaps the administration is promoting nuclear power to reward potential campaign contributors in the nuclear business, such as Westinghouse, General Electric, Framatone (formerly Babcock & Wilcox), Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown & Root, and other large-scale construction firms that build nuclear power plants and the infrastructure they require (roads, power lines, special docks at seaports, fuel processing plants, security apparatus and training, and so forth.)

Hypothesis #3: Nuclear power is needed now to prevent nations and regions from "going solar." Because each nuclear power plant requires an investment measured in billions of dollars, and because nuclear power plants are dangerous, they require (and thus maintain) the highly-centralized, top-down, quasi-military social structure that modern transnational corporations provide. The "military-industrial" complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 is epitomized by nuclear technologies.

Solar power on the other hand can be small-scale, locally-controlled, definitely not dangerous, much less subject to terrorist disruption,[6] and therefore much more compatible with an open, democratic social structure that might, as time passes, erode corporate control. Therefore, in a sense, solar power is dangerous and even subversive because it could subvert "business as usual."

Hypothesis #4: Just as nuclear power plants require and promote a centralized, quasi-military, corporatized social structure, so also does a world awash in weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.

So long as a there is a thriving black market in weapons-grade nuclear materials. then we can more easily justify a $450 billion annual military budget, a network of U.S. espionage agencies active now in 80 countries,[7] and pre-emptive wars such as the one now in Iraq (and others reportedly being readied now by the Pentagon against Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan[8]).

Whether your job is military, civilian, or somewhere in between, if you're in the business of fighting the nation's perceived enemies, and your want your business to thrive, then enemies armed with small nuclear weapons may be the best kind of enemies to have. Everyone will support your work against such enemies. They will even follow you into war against such enemies.

Hypothesis #5: Now we enter the realm of realpolitik, the kind of world that Henry Kissinger inhabits, where thinking the unthinkable is routine.[9]

Is it possible that some people within the Bush administration, (or among groups whom the Bush administration considers essential to its electoral success in 2004), might imagine benefits from a rogue nation or group detonating a small nuclear weapon in Jerusalem or even New York?

Here are some crackpot speculations perhaps worth considering:

a) Maybe detonation of a small nuclear weapon would serve to remind the current generation how dangerous nuclear technology really is. A rogue nuclear detonation would quickly bring the civilian nuclear power industry to an end. It might also spur the international community to quickly sweep up the tons of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium lying about in 40-or-so nations.

b) A rogue nuclear detonation would almost certainly spell the end of democracy as we know it. Major portions of the bill of rights would probably be canceled within hours.

Recall that the Bush administration saw the mass murders on 9/11 as sufficient reason to scrap the legal doctrine of habeas corpus which was formalized in English law in 1679 and was embodied a century later in the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court has "recognized the fact that `[t]he writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.'[10]

A writ of habeas corpus is a judge's mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought before the court so the court can determine whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. Without habeas corpus, people can be imprisoned forever without any recourse whatsoever. Even the fact of their imprisonment can be kept secret. This is what the Bush administration has said it aims to do at Guantanamo Bay and perhaps at other quasi-military prisons the U.S. maintains around the world.

Seeing the right of habeas corpus repealed in response to the mass murders of 9/11, everyone has to be impressed by the fragility of what seemed like the immutable underpinnings of democracy and indeed civilization itself. The enemies of democracy -- inside the U.S. and outside -- can see as well as anyone that a nuclear detonation in New York would almost surely end the American experiment in self-rule.

c) There is a growing movement in the U.S. to erase the barrier that separates church and state, to replace our secular government with a religious government.[11] We can see the beginnings of such thinking in the Texas State Republican Party Platform for 2004, which says, "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of American is a Christian nation." And: "The Party understands that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our basic freedoms and the cornerstone of Western legal tradition." And: "Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State."[12]

By removing the Constitutional wall that separates church and state, some people merely hope to get a free handout from Washington for their religious group (the President's "faith-based initiative" gave $1.1 billion of taxpayer funds to religious organizations during 2003).[13]

Others have much larger goals, hoping to institute a fully theocratic order in which their idea of Christian Biblical law replaces our secular democracy, essentially repealing the enlightenment and returning the world to the 17th century.[11]

d) There is a different, and much larger, group of Christians who say they believe that their personal salvation depends upon the return of Christ to Earth and that this second coming of Christ requires a specific series of events to unfold in the Middle East, including the battle of Armageddon, which many interpret to mean a nuclear World War III.

These believers in Armageddon theology include the Reverend Billy Graham, the Reverend Pat Robertson, the singer Pat Boone, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Jr., Gary Bauer, Republican strategist Ed McAteer, advice columnist Laura Schlessinger, writer Hal Lindsey ("The Late, Great Planet Earth"), the Reverend Tim LaHaye (co-author of the 11-volume "Left Behind" series), House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Tex.), U.S. Senator James N. Inhofe (R-Ok., Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works), Attorney General John Ashcroft, and many others in top leadership positions within the Bush administration.

Author Grace Halsell -- herself a born-again Christian from Texas -- toured the Holy Land in the Middle East twice with followers of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Halsell then wrote a book about her experiences. In "Prophecy and Politics," which she subtitled, "Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War," Halsell wrote, "I have heard Falwell preach on nuclear Armageddon, and I saw his face turn radiant at the thought." [14, pg. 197]

--Peter Montague
[To be continued.]

For article link with reference sources, see:
rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=1

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- - Rev. Moon holds coronation at Capitol
Religious leader says he's here to 'save the world's 6 billion people'
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38947



2) NASA-Nukes – Comments Requested

- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues

NASA SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON EXPANDING SPACE NUKES PLAN

NASA, in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DoE), is seeking public comment by July 30, 2004 on their plan to expand the development and testing of nuclear powered devices called Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) for space missions.

NASA is now preparing a major expansion of nuclear powered launches to the outer planets and Mars. Radioactive fuel processing and fabrication would likely occur at Los Alamos Nat'l Lab in New Mexico. Advanced RPS assembly and testing would likely be performed at Argonne Nat'l Lab - West in Idaho Falls, ID. Additional safety testing of advanced RPS could be performed at: Sandia Nat'l Lab (Albuquerque, NM) and Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Aberdeen, MD). Activities associated with the development, testing, and verification of the power conversion systems could be performed at: NASA's Glenn Center (Cleveland, OH); Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA); Boeing Rocketdyne (Canoga Park, CA); Teledyne Energy Systems (Hunt Valley, MD); Stirling Technology Corp (Kennewick, WA); and Lockheed Martin (Valley Forge, PA). Eventual launch of these new nuclear space devices would be performed at: Kennedy Space Center (Florida).

Please send your comments to NASA opposing this expanded program of nuclear power in space by July 30, 2004. Comments from people outside the U.S. are also encouraged.

Send comments to:

Dr. George Schmidt
NASA HQ
Office of Space Science, Code S
Washington DC 20546
rpseis@nasa.gov

Suggested comments:

The increase in plutonium production for space missions at Los Alamos laboratory, where DoE already has a bad health and safety track record, will lead to more contaminated workers and groundwater.

The expanded numbers of launches of nuclear devices, on rockets with a historic 10% failure rate, guarantee an accident at some point of catastrophic proportions.

Alternative power sources for deep space missions could be developed if NASA and the DoE put effort and investment into the task.

The Pentagon has long sought to institutionalize nuclear power in space, which would then be available for military purposes.

This information is forwarded from an email by:

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell Phone)
space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com

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

- - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes, Fight Continues

Congress Passes Bill to Force Payment on Western Shoshone Land Struggle -- A Sad Day for the Rule of Law in the United States, but the Fight s not Over Say the Western Shoshone.

June 25, 2004. Crescent Valley, NV. -- As of this morning, the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to the Bush Administration for signature. The bill would authorize an alleged payoff of approximately 15 cents an acres for tens of millions of acres of disputed lands in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. A majority of tribal councils, representing approximately 80% of the population, the Western Shoshone National Council and all the traditional people strongly oppose the bill, they are supported by the National Congress of American Indians and Amnesty International. This formal opposition was apparently ignored however and an undocumented, unverified straw poll was used instead by the Bush Administration and Nevada legislators to justify the legislation.

The land base at issue is the third largest gold producing area in the world and cited by a 1999 Interior report as the number one investment opportunity for extraction companies. It is also the site where the nation s nuclear waste repository would be located, Yucca Mountain, and the home to the Nevada Test Site and Federal Counterterrorism Facility where the Bush Administration has talked of reopening nuclear testing. Both Bush and his political advisor Karl Rove, have made personal visits to Nevada in the last thirty days.

The fight is not over. A fraud is a fraud - Individuals cannot sell out a nation and the bill, although a threat politically, does nothing to change our inherent rights or our Treaty rights. Congress was informed of all the facts that touch upon this issue. We will use the Treaty of Ruby Valley to stop Yucca Mountain and to protect our lands. Our title is still intact. Stated Raymond Yowell, Western Shoshone National Council.

For additional information, contact:

Western Shoshone Defense Project
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
Tel. (775) 468-0230
Fax: (775) 468-0237
www.wsdp.org



3) Flyby Feedback from "Sniper"

This feedback is via email, apparently from:
david reed < the_original_sniper@yahoo.com >
Subject: Re:


At 06:55 AM 6/29/2004 -0700, you wrote:

HOW PATHETIC! To call what was done to the prisoners in Iraq as "torture" is nothing but ignorant. You refer to the interogation methods used, well, give us an example of some methods you approve of. Seriously, let's pretend you are in charge of interrogating someone who you are pretty sure has information that could lead to the death of your children. Now, what are you going to do to get that information. Are you going to respect their "rights"? Or are you going to do what you can, short of cutting off their head, to get that information? You see, it is people like you that hurt this country. Tell us what you would do differently. Give some ideas. Don't just sit there and moan and groan and complain about the government, a pro active government. The cowardly, murderous terrorists will NEVER leave this great nation alone, so realize now that we must go after them before they attack us again.

And to call this a war for oil really captures your ignorance. What do you do, ride a bike to school? Gas is more expensive than ever and the Great President wants to tap into our OWN oil reserves but no, the do nothing democrats want to keep buying it from those wonderful countries that support terrorism.

Have a good day and read your Bible.

Sniper



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