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Tag: weapons of mass destruction

No New US Nuclear Arsenal

No New US Nuclear Arsenal

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The Union of Concerned Scientists has issued an alert on the proposed nuclear armament expansion program.

Urge the Administration Not to Build New Nuclear Weapons

The Bush administration is proposing to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, recreating the type of design, development, and production capability for nuclear weapons used in the United States during the Cold War. Fortunately, a mandatory environmental impact review of the Bush administration’s so-called “Complex 2030” proposal allows you to submit comments on this dangerous plan. Send a letter telling the administration to abandon its plans to produce thousands of new nuclear weapons and instead focus on cutting the already oversized U.S. nuclear arsenal.

What about our treaties? What about our supposed views on weapons of mass destruction?

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US Concentration Camps?

US Concentration Camps?

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KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co. was awarded a $385 million 1-year contract (with 4 1-year options) from the Department of Homeland Security to establish “temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”

“We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract,” an executive vice president, Bruce Stanski, said in a statement, “because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency management support.”

It’s amazing someone can stand up and say something like that, given the historical facts. Sigh.

So, the question is, why do we need concentration camps in the US, and who’s really gonna sit in them??

Terrorists? Immigrants to be deported? Victims of natural (or unnatural) events? Poor people? Old people? Whoever doesn’t sign up for the drug benefit written by the insurance industry? (the last a lame attempt at humor, sorry)

American citizens culled for one of the rapidly-developing “new programs”?

What kind of programs require major expansion of detention centers, each capable of holding 5,000 people?

Let’s ask the Bush administration exactly what it means by the “rapid development of new programs,” which might require the construction of a new network of detention / labor / concentration camps across the United States!

“Almost certainly this is preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters,” says Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, the U.S. military’s account of its activities in Vietnam. “They’ve already done this on a smaller scale, with the ‘special registration’ detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo.”

Peter Dale Scott, author of Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina, suggests that it could be a preparation for conditions of martial law, and notes that a multimillion program for detention facilities “will greatly increase NORTHCOM’s ability to respond to any domestic disorders.”

…in April 2002, Defense Dept. officials implemented a plan for domestic U.S. military operations by creating a new U.S. Northern Command (CINC-NORTHCOM) for the continental United States. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called this “the most sweeping set of changes since the unified command system was set up in 1946.”

The NORTHCOM commander, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced, is responsible for “homeland defense and also serves as head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)…. He will command U.S. forces that operate within the United States in support of civil authorities. The command will provide civil support not only in response to attacks, but for natural disasters.”

John Brinkerhoff later commented on PBS that, “The United States itself is now for the first time since the War of 1812 a theater of war. That means that we should apply, in my view, the same kind of command structure in the United States that we apply in other theaters of war.”

…NORTHCOM conducted its highly classified Granite Shadow exercise in Washington. As William Arkin reported in the Washington Post, “Granite Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and compartmented operation related to the military’s extra-legal powers regarding weapons of mass destruction. It allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control.”

For an excellent, but chilling overview of some of the possibilities here (including labor camps, dissident and “Fifth Columnist” roundups, and so on), take a look at “Bush’s Mysterious ‘New Programs'” by Nat Parry, Consortium News, posted February 23, 2006. at AlterNet.

Actions of the Day

Actions of the Day

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Restore Scientific Integrity
Federal government scientific information is being censored, manipulated, and distorted on an unprecedented scale. To prevent these abuses of science, members of Congress have introduced the Restore Scientific Integrity to Federal Research and Policy Making Act. They need to hear from us about the importance of protecting government science and our nation’s health, safetey, and environment. Check out the Union of Concerned Scientists efforts to restore scientific integrity in federal policy making. Click here to take action through the Union of Concerned Scientists – it’s easy and free!

Save the Media
Read the pdf version of “A New Standard,” the recent report from Free Press, Common Cause, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, and Media Access Project. Then read or listen to Bill Moyers’ speech at the close of the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis. More than 60,000 Free Press activists have already joined a call for the resignation of Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson and the creation of town hall meetings nationwide to put the public back into public broadcasting.
Add your support to the petition.

Impeach Bush
President Bush mislead Congress and the people as the Administration prepared to wage unprovoked war against Iraq. The evidence used to justify the war and “sell” it to the public was based on fabrications and lies. A number of recent revelations confirm that the Administration knowingly lied about the war and its causes. Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld’s key aide, was quoted in Vanity Fair magazine as saying, “For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.” Since the Administration was flooded with angry letters, undoubtedly many from families of U.S. soldiers, the Pentagon attempted to do damage control, asserting that Wolfowitz was misquoted. The public now knows, as does every member of Congress, that in April 2002 Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair secretly agreed to wage unprovoked war against Iraq (at a meeting at Bush’s Crawford ranch in Texas). This fact, and other incriminating information about the secret maneuvers to wage unprovoked war, are contained in British government documents. In a letter to Bush earlier this month, 89 House Democrats expressed shock over the documents. They asked whether the papers were authentic and, if so, whether they proved that the White House had agreed to invade Iraq months before seeking Congress’ OK. (Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2005)
“If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war, as well as the integrity of our own administration,” the letter says. “While the president… was telling the citizens and the Congress that they had no intention to start a war with Iraq, they were working very close[ly] with Tony Blair and the British leadership at making this a foregone conclusion,” the letter’s chief author, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, said Wednesday. As Ramsey Clark recently stated: “Impeachment now is the only way we, the American people, can promise ourselves, and the world, that we will not tolerate crimes against peace and humanity by our government. Knowing what we know, to wait longer is to condone what has been done, and risk more.” Use the quick and easy-to-use advocacy mechanism on the ImpeachBush.org website to send personal customized letters to the representatives from your district and state to urge them to support the impeachment of George W. Bush and other high officials for the commission of High Crimes and Misdemeanors.