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THE SUN lower Monthly eNewsletter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundationf July 2004, No. 86 World War II, and the Cold War, by building and leading strong alliances." In This Issue No. 86 To read the full article, please visit: http://www.waging- Perspectives ................................................... 1 peace.org/articles/2004/06/10_krieger_kerry-pledges.htm Take Action ................................................... 2 Nuclear Terrorism ......................................... 3 LET US THINK BIG AND CREATE A Proliferation ................................................... 3 DEPARTMENT OF PEACE Global Military Spending .............................. 4 by Walter Cronkite Nuclear Testing .............................................. 5 The following is an excerpt from Cronkite's 2004 com- Non-proliferation ........................................... 5 mencement address at Pomona College in Riverside, International Law .......................................... 7 California. On 23 October 2004, Cronkite will receive the Missile Defense ............................................. 8 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's 2004 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award in Santa Barbara, California. For more Nuclear Energy & Waste ............................... 9 information on the Foundation's 21st Annual Evening for Nuclear Insanity ............................................ 9 Peace, please visit: http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/pro- Foundation News ......................................... 10 grams/awards-&-contests/dpl-award/index.htm Resources .................................................... 11 Quite some years ago I gave a commencement address at Brandeis University which I thought was rather successful - Support ........................................................ 13 - possibly even brilliant. But I received a letter shortly there- Quotable ...................................................... 13 after from a distinguished alumnus of that University. He Editorial Team...............................................13 chastised me for not being more optimistic -- for not inspir- ing the graduates with my hopes for the future into which they were venturing. Perspectives I pondered the criticism and was concerned that I had, somehow let that graduating class down. And then I came KERRY PLEDGES TO GIVE NUCLEAR to my conclusion: It was certainly true that I had not given TERRORISM HIS TOP PRIORITY them a rousing pep talk but, what the devil -- I knew I had spoken the truth as I saw it. The speech was given at the by David Krieger depths of one of the most tortured decades in American history. It was the decade of the 1960's -- almost as divisive In his speech, "New Strategies to Meet New Threats," deliv- as the Civil War a century before -- a nation torn by the bat- ered in West Palm Beach, Florida on June 1, 2004, John tles for civil rights and women's rights -- the assassinations, Kerry, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the Vietnam war -- an economic slump. There wasn't much President, referred to the possibility of nuclear terrorism as to be optimistic about. "the greatest threat we face today," and offered a program to eliminate this threat based on US leadership. Kerry Well, here we are at Pomona , almost a half century later, promised to prevent nuclear weapons or materials to create and as we look around us, the world into which you are them from falling into the hands of al Qaeda or other moving doesn't look very much brighter. extremist organizations. "As President," he pledged, "my number one security goal will be to prevent the terrorists We are plagued with the Iraq war -- a possibly improving from gaining weapons of mass murder, and ensure that economy -- but still a tragically large population of unem- hostile states disarm." ployed or under-employed -- and an environmental crisis Kerry recognizes that the US cannot accomplish this task that threatens the Earth. Here at home we have a collaps- by itself and pledged to build and repair coalitions. "We ing infrastructure of aging bridges and dams -- and a high- can't eliminate this threat on our own," he stated. "We must way system badly in need of repair -- and, perhaps worst of fight this enemy in the same way we fought in World War I, all, an inadequate educational system (not including The Sunflower, eNewsletter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, No. 86 July 2004 1 Pomona, of course). Incidentally, those educational failures Thus far, the Bush administration has not treated the Sudan in our lower schools could be vastly reduced by a wage crisis as a front-burner issue and has not acted beyond scale for teachers that would lure more of the best and asking the Sudanese government to stop the ethnic cleans- brightest to the profession. And all of this as we face a ing. Presented with a global audience at the recent G-8 national deficit that will hobble us through your generation - summit, President Bush missed a prime opportunity to turn - and very likely that of your children and even grandchil- an international spotlight on the crisis. Though it was dren. reportedly discussed at the G-8 summit, Bush's press con- ference at the summit contained no mention of the Sudan To read the full article, please visit: http://www.waging- crisis. peace.org/articles/2004/05/16_cronkite_think-big-peace.htm Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate sub- committee on Africa, said, "Some of our friends are report- PROFESSORS CALL FOR ACCOUNTABILITY edly concerned that confronting Khartoum too directly about FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS atrocities in Darfur will jeopardize any prospect for lasting peace in southern Sudan - they may be right. But if hun- dreds of thousands of lives are the price of peace in south- To: Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the ern Sudan, the price is too high." U.S. Senate Urgent action is needed. To find out what you can do, As members of university faculties in law, international rela- please visit: tions, diplomacy, and public policy, we write to register our http://isg-iags.org/action/alert/sudan/darfur/#now objection to the systematic violation of human rights prac- For more information on the crisis in Sudan, visit ticed or permitted by authorities of the United States within http://www.igc.org occupied Iraq during recent months: we request Congressional action to ensure accountability for such vio- TELL CONGRESS TO OPPOSE NEW lations and to safeguard against such egregious abuses in the future. Current circumstances require that all transcend NUCLEAR WEAPONS, PART DEUX partisan politics or considerations. Action by Congress is necessary to promote a rule of law produced and enforced On 9 June 2004, Representative David Hobson (R-OH), through a democratic process and to protect the physical Chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations and psychological integrity of all people consistent with the Subcommittee, eliminated $96 million in funding for new traditions of our nation. nuclear weapons programs in the FY2005 Energy and To read the full letter, please visit: http://www.waging- Water Appropriations Bill. peace.org/articles/2004/06/16_letter-congress-rights.htm The next step for the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill is to pass through the House of Representatives. It is possi- Take Action ble that determined representatives might attempt to amend the bill, despite Hobson's decision, to include funding for some, if not all, nuclear weapons projects. URGENT ACTION NEEDED IN SUDAN Take action and contact your members of Congress to ask A war between the north and south has been raging in that they vote against any amendments to reinstate funding Sudan for the past 25 years. However, in the past few for new nuclear weapons. To contact your representatives, weeks, the war has escalated. Hundreds of thousands of visit: lives are at risk in the western Sudanese province of http://capwiz.com/capeaceaction/mail/oneclick_compose/?a Darfur, where Arab death squads have forced African vil- lertid=6035791 lagers into squalid refugee camps. Already, more than a million people have been displaced, and between ten and "I AM YOUR SPY": UPDATE ON ISRAELI 30,000 have been killed. Even if action is taken immediate- ly, USAID estimates as many as 350,000 refugees may die. NUCLEAR WHISTLEBLOWER The US government is debating whether or not the crisis in MORDECHAI VANUNU Sudan constitutes genocide. Key members of the adminis- tration have charged that the actions undertaken with the On 19 June, BBC World TV broadcast an interview with support of the Sudanese government represent methodic, Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu. To read strategic killing. On 12 June, Secretary of State Colin about the interview, visit: Powell stated, "We have every reason to believe these mili- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3758693.stm tias are being supported by various instrumentalities of the http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3758227. Sudanese government." stm http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/04/this_world/nb_v anunu30may.ram The Sunflower, eNewsletter of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, No. 86 July 2004 2 Mordechai would love to hear from his friends and support- Counter-terrorism specialists also provided additional testi- ers. You can write to him at: mony supporting the belief that the US can deter terrorists Mordechai Vanunu from striking nuclear reactor sites and irradiated fuel pools c/o Cathedral Church of St. George by bolstering security and hardening storage containers.