Author: Mike Ryan

Reflections on the 70th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings

by David Krieger

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing some 90,000 people immediately and another 55,000 by the end of 1945. Three days later, the United States dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing some 40,000 people immediately and another 35,000 by the end of 1945. In between these two bombings, on August 8, 1945, the U.S. signed the charter creating the Nuremberg Tribunal to hold Axis leaders to account for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Under well-established international humanitarian law – the law of warfare – war crimes include using weapons that do not distinguish between civilians and combatants or that cause unnecessary suffering.  Because nuclear weapons kill indiscriminately and cause unnecessary suffering by radiation poisoning (among other grotesque consequences), the U.S. was itself in the act of committing war crimes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki while agreeing to hold its defeated opponents in World War II to account for their war crimes. To read more, click here.

Hibakusha Thoughts on the 70th Anniversary

by Shigeko Sasamori and Setsuko Thurlow

Shigeko Sasamori, 83, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, said, “People cannot live forever. People die from natural causes such as illness and disease and from natural disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes, but war claims the most lives. People start wars. People should stop wars.” Setsuko Thurlow, also 83 and a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, said, “The first thought that comes to me is the image of my four-year-old nephew Eiji transformed to a charred, blackened child who died in agony. Had he not been a victim of the atomic bomb, he would have been 74 years old this year. This shocked me. Regardless of the passage of time, he remains in my memory as a four-year-old child, who came to represent all the innocent children of the world. This has been the driving, compelling force for me to continue my struggle against the ultimate evil of nuclear weapons. His image is burned into my retina.” To read more, click here.

Marshall Islands Files Appeal in Ninth Circuit

On July 13, the Republic of the Marshall Islands filed an Appeal Brief at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as part of its Nuclear Zero Lawsuit against the United States. Laurie Ashton, lead attorney for the Marshall Islands in this case, said, “While the United States has the world focused on nonproliferation measures across the globe, it is in flagrant breach of its obligation to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament. It refuses to discuss any timetable whatsoever to achieve nuclear disarmament, and is instead actually modernizing its nuclear arsenal with new capabilities to last decades into the future at a budget of approximately $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars). The lawsuit brings these breaches to Court, forcing the U.S. to respond in public.” “Marshall Islands Appeals U.S. Court’s Dismissal of Nuclear Zero Lawsuit,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, July 13, 2015.

Numerous Amicus Curiae Briefs in Support of the Marshall Islands

Six amicus curiae briefs have been filed at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero Lawsuit against the United States. Briefs were filed by parties representing a diverse group of interests, including human rights, the environment, religion, labor, medicine, nuclear non-proliferation, peace, science and international law. An amicus curiae letter was submitted by six U.S. mayors. The amicus curiae briefs and letter, along with all other court documents related to the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits, can be accessed online at www.nuclearzero.org/in-the-courts. “Strong Support for Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero Lawsuit,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, July 21, 2015.

Misuse of Taxpayer Funds at Sandia National Laboratory

Iran and P5+1 Reach Nuclear Deal

After years of negotiations beginning in 2006, the Iran Nuclear deal was signed on July 14, limiting Iranian nuclear activity in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions. The deal will oblige Iran to remove two-thirds of its installed centrifuges and store them under international supervision, get rid of 98% of its enriched uranium, accept that sanctions would be rapidly restored if the deal were violated, and permanently give the International Atomic Energy Agency access “where necessary when necessary.” In return, international economic sanctions will slowly be lifted, with an arms embargo remaining in place for five years and an embargo on missiles for eight years. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation recently issued an Action Alert in support of the Iran deal, calling on members of the U.S. Congress to approve the deal during its 60-day review period. Click here to take action. Jeremy Bowen, “Iran Nuclear Talks: ‘Historic’ Agreement Struck,” BBC News, July 14, 2015.

U.S. Conducts Flight Test of New B61-12 Nuclear Bomb

The U.S. Air Force and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have conducted their first development flight test of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb.   “Achieving the first complete B61-12 flight test provides clear evidence of the nation’s continued commitment to maintain the B61 and provides assurance to our allies,” said NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Dr. Don Cook.   The refurbishments are intended to extend the bomb’s lifespan while also improving its accuracy and efficiency. The B61 has been in use since its creation in the 1960s, and the Pentagon has requested additional funds for the B61’s next life-extension program to continue updates. At $11 billion, this future program would be the most expensive nuclear weapons refurbishment in history. Critics argue that the B61-12 Life Extension Program is unnecessary and provides new military capabilities, contrary to President Obama’s promise not to introduce nuclear weapons with new military capabilities. Mark Prigg, “Air Force Drops Dummy Nuclear Bomb in Nevada in First Controversial Test to Update Cold War Arsenal,” Daily Mail, July 8, 2015.

Japanese Government Seeks to Reinterpret Peace Article in Constitution

In a victory for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his party, the lower house of the Diet approved legislation that would allow Japanese military forces to engage in foreign conflicts for the first time since World War II. The largely unpopular vote, reached as demonstrators protested outside of Parliament, culminates months of debate over Japan’s departure from a 70-year tradition of pacifism. The Diet’s upper house, set to discuss the issue in coming weeks, is expected to vote in favor as well. Abe’s push for the legislation fits into his agenda of leading Japan beyond remorse for its past military actions, and towards a future as an integrated player on the world stage. He claims the bill’s passage will enable Japan to better provide for regional security, citing China’s expansionist aggression as a key concern. Critics argue that the legislation violates Japan’s postwar constitutional charter, which relinquishes the state’s right to “war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.” Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan states: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.” Jonathan Soble, “Japan Moves to Allow Military Combat for First Time in 70 Years,” The New York Times, July 16, 2015.

Companies Responsible for Contamination at Rocky Flats

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has ruled that Dow Chemical Co. and Rockwell International Corp. should be held liable for nuisance claims regarding the detrimental misconduct of the Rocky Flats nuclear plant in Colorado. The charges were brought against Dow and Rockwell by local landowners who suffered damages from contaminated soil and water as a result of the plant’s mishandling of highly radioactive waste. The plant was closed in 1989 when FBI raided Rocky Flats and found evidence of the contamination. For the last 25 years, the parties have been embroiled in litigation.   Scott Flaherty, “Major Fallout in Rocky Flats Case,” The National Law Journal, June 29, 2015.

August’s Featured Blog

This month’s featured blog is the Peace and Health Blog of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). IPPNW, the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate for its work for the abolition of nuclear weapons, is a leading voice in support of the Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero Lawsuits and the international effort to achieve a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Recent titles on the blog include, “What’s Good for Iran is Good for the Nuclear-Armed States,” and “2015 NPT Review Conference Outcome is the Humanitarian Pledge.” To read the blog, click here.

This Month in Nuclear Threat History

History chronicles many instances when humans have been threatened by nuclear weapons. In this article, Jeffrey Mason outlines some of the most serious threats that have taken place in the month of August. To read Mason’s full article, click here. This month is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  For more information on the history of the Nuclear Age, visit NAPF’s Nuclear Files website.

Sadako Peace Day is August 6

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation will hold its 21st Annual Sadako Peace Day commemoration event on Thursday, August 6. This year’s event, which falls on the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, remembers the victims of the U.S. atomic bombings and all innocent victims of war. NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell will deliver the keynote address. The program also includes music, poetry and reflection. Click here to view the invitation. The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Sadako Peace Garden at La Casa de Maria – 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito, California. The event is free and open to the public.

Paul Chappell in Sojourners Magazine

Paul K. Chappell, Peace Leadership Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, is featured in the August edition of Sojourners Magazine. Paul was interviewed by Sojourners writer Catherine Woodiwiss on a recent peace leadership lecture tour in Washington, DC. Woodiwiss writes, “Chappell follows a great tradition of 20th century nonviolent thinkers, from Mahatma Gandhi to Dorothy Day to Martin Luther King Jr. For those asking what waging peace looks like in practice, Chappell’s language of active precision calls to mind King’s casting of nonviolence as a ‘powerful and just weapon’ that cuts without wounding.” To read the full Sojourners article, click here. The article was reprinted with permission from Sojourners, (800) 714-7474, www.sojo.net.

NAPF President David Krieger to Speak in Maui

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, will be the featured speaker at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event will take place on August 6 at 6:30 pm at the University of Hawaii Maui College. It is organized by Maui Peace Action. Click here to download a flyer with more information.

International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition

Rick Wayman, NAPF’s Director of Programs, will co-chair the International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 30. Organizers expect approximately 300 young people to gather in Hiroshima to learn more about the urgent need to abolish nuclear weapons and to collectively make a “youth pledge” to commit to working for nuclear abolition. Click here for more information about the summit, including registration details and livestream information.

Evening for Peace Honoring Setsuko Thurlow

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Annual Evening for Peace will take place on October 25, 2015 in Santa Barbara, California. The Foundation will present its Distinguished Peace Leadership Award to Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and an outspoken advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Click here for more information about the Evening for Peace, including sponsorship opportunities, ticket information and details about this year’s honoree.

“What is good for Iran—and for the other 185 nuclear-weapon-free NPT member states—is good for the nine nuclear-armed states and for the world as a whole. A treaty banning nuclear weapons, negotiated and adopted by non-nuclear states, would send an unmistakable signal to the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and the DPRK that continuing to possess nuclear weapons is the act of an international outlaw, and that eliminating those arsenals is an obligation that can no longer be deferred.” — International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, in response to the deal struck between Iran and the P5+1.

“What the Hiroshima survivors are telling us is that no one else should ever go through the experience they suffered. An atomic bombing creates a living hell on Earth where the living envy the dead.” — Tadatoshi Akiba, former mayor of Hiroshima. This quote is featured in the book Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action, available online in the NAPF Peace Store.

“The military capabilities of this weapon stem from a totally fictitious and bizarre idea that the United States can fight and win nuclear wars.” — Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, referring to the B61-12 nuclear bomb currently being modernized and tested by the United States.

Susanna Faulds Fiona Hayman McKenna Jacquemet David Krieger Carol Warner Rick Wayman

The Nuclear Age at Seventy

by David Krieger

The first explosion of a nuclear device took place at Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Just three weeks later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and three days after that on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The new weapons had devastating power, killing approximately 100,000 people immediately in the two cities and another 100,000 people by the end of 1945.

Since these bombings brought the world into the Nuclear Age, the human future and that of other forms of life have been at risk. Never before did humankind have the power to destroy itself, but that completely changed in the Nuclear Age. By our own scientific and technological cleverness, we humans had created the means of our own demise. Our technological capacity for destruction had exceeded our spiritual capacity to work together and cooperate to end the threat that these weapons posed to our common future.

To read more, click here.

Not Just Apologies but Repentance

by Nassrine Azimi

Frequently asking a single country to apologize tends to turn the gaze upon others, and the sight is hardly flattering: a roll-call of nations having admitted to or atoned for past wrong-doings falls pitifully short.

Most Western colonial powers have a stained record when it comes to apologizing for their colonial era plunders. Too many still make believe that their colonialism had less to do with greed and more with the spread of “civilization.” Quite a few still perpetuate the myth of “The White Man’s Burden.”

By any measure the leader of the no-apologies category, in a league all its own, must be the United States of America. Few countries have been as mired in as much warfare within as brief a period of history as the United States. Since WWII, the number of revolutions, coups d’état, invasions and wars it has directly or indirectly instigated has been staggering. The United States has yet to apologize for unleashing nuclear terror on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not only has there been no apology, but past governments have gone to extraordinary lengths, to convince a gullible public that the two atomic bombs saved a million American lives (notwithstanding historical research proving this story was promoted by a PR team after the bombings.)

To read more, click here.

UK Trident Discredited by Whistleblower

by Commander Robert Green

On 17 May, the Scottish Sunday Herald revealed that a whistleblower, 25-year-old Able Seaman William McNeilly, had released online an 18-page report containing serious allegations surrounding the safety and security of the British Trident ballistic missile-equipped submarine force.

The Royal Navy is out of its depth operating the existing Trident system, starved of resources and trying to get by on the cheap. This dangerous situation – which the courageous actions of a patriotic young whistleblower have exposed – can only get worse if the UK Submarine Service has to take on whatever replacement the US is prepared to let the British have.

To read more, click here.

The Marshall Islands Are Trying to Keep the World’s Nuclear Powers Honest

On paper, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is a strong treaty. The agreement among most nations aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, disarm existing weapons and encourage the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

In reality, many of the countries who signed it either weasel out of its obligations or simply ignore them. “For far too many years, these circular negotiations on nuclear non-proliferation have failed to listen closely to those voices who know better,” Tony deBrum, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Marshall Islands — a tiny republic in the Pacific Ocean — said.

The Marshall Islands brought litigation against the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries — including the U.S., UK and Russia —in 2014. The island republic filed nine separate cases in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as well as one in U.S. Federal Court.

Matthew Gault, “The Marshall Islands Tried to Keep the World’s Nuclear Powers Honest,” War Is Boring, June 9, 2015.

Marshall Islands Take India to Court

The Marshall Islands feels strongly that the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan could pose a huge danger to world peace since both are non-signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Last month, the International Court of Justice accepted India’s request for an extension to reply to the Marshall Islands’ application, giving it until September 16.

Dhananjay Mahapatra, “N-disarmament: Tiny Island of 70.000 People Takes India to Court,” Times of India, June 25, 2015.

U.S. Spending Increases to Counter Russian Nuclear Modernization

To maintain nuclear “superiority” and counter increases in Russia’s defense budget, the United States must ramp up its own spending on defense and nuclear weapons, according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. According to Thornberry, U.S. defense spending has been cut 21% over the last four years, while Russia’s defense spending has increased by 10% and includes modernization of ICBMs and long-range cruise missiles. Thornberry warned, “We’ve let the infrastructure deteriorate.”

However, United States military spending is still approximately seven times greater than Russia’s. The United States also plans to completely rebuild its nuclear arsenal and infrastructure at a cost of at least $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

Alissa Tabirian, “HASC Chair: Increase U.S. Defense Spending to Counter Russian Nuke Modernization,” Defense Daily, June 23, 2015.

NATO to Review Nuclear Weapons Policy as Attitude to Russia Hardens

At a two-day ministerial meeting in Brussels, NATO officials discussed reevaluating their nuclear weapons policies in response to increasing tension with Russia over Ukraine. Some NATO leaders do not feel that current NATO nuclear policy is aggressive enough, and view Russia’s rhetoric on nuclear weapons, involvement of the weapons in military exercises, and announced acquisition of new missiles as signaling an increased nuclear threat. Approximately 180 U.S. nuclear bombs are currently stationed on the territories of five NATO member countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey).

In addition to NATO discussions on hardening its nuclear policy, diplomats and scientists have voiced concern over a “new nuclear arms race” between the U.S. and Russia. Both countries are engaging in nuclear weapon “modernization” programs in violation of their legal obligation under Article VI of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiate for an end to the nuclear arms race at an early date.

Ewen MacAskill, “Nato to Review Nuclear Weapons Policy as Attitude to Russia Hardens,” The Guardian, June 24, 2015.

Seeking Peace in Ukraine

In a “long and constructive” phone call between US President Obama and Russian President Putin, the two leaders discussed a plethora of issues including the need to counter Islamic State fighters, negotiations to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and the situation in the Middle East. President Obama also called on President Putin to remove Russian troops and military equipment from Ukraine.

In an op-ed in TIME magazine, former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley outlines five features of a deal that could bring peace in Ukraine. The deal would include a promise from Ukraine never to join NATO, lifting of economic sanctions against Russia, and more.

Toluse Olorunnipa, “Obama Tells Putin Russia Needs to Remove Troops From Ukraine,” Bloomberg, June 25, 2015.

The Golden Rule Sails Again

On June 20, the ship Golden Rule was officially re-launched. Veterans for Peace took on the task of restoring the ship, famous for its attempt in 1958 to stop U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands. The ship will sail from its current home in northern California to San Diego in time for the Veterans for Peace national convention in early August, which has the theme of “peace and reconciliation in the Pacific.”

Mark Larson, “Re-Christening the Golden Rule,” North Coast Journal, June 21, 2015.

 

The Rainbow Warrior: 30 Years On

Henk Haazen provides a firsthand account of his experience as a crewmember of the Rainbow Warrior, a vessel that served the campaigns of the global environmental organization Greenpeace. The Rainbow Warrior and its crew were dispatched to relocate Marshall Islanders whose land and livelihood had been affected by U.S. nuclear testing. Upon witnessing the devastating effects of the testing on the islanders and their homeland, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior was compelled to launch their next big campaign: to bring an end to French nuclear testing in French Polynesia.

This plan was thrown off track in 1985 when the French Secret Service blew up the Rainbow Warrior in a New Zealand harbor. This act of terrorism, however, would not thwart the efforts of Greenpeace in the following decades. In the mid-1990s, Greenpeace boats formed a flotilla around the French Polynesian Islands: a chain of boats that served as a symbolic barrier to nuclear testing, pressuring the French to end their testing shortly afterwards.

Hank Haazen, “The Rainbow Warrior: 30 years on,” Stuff.co.nz, June 26, 2015.

Livermore Lab Plutonium Tests Challenged

A series of controversial experiments taking place at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California are being challenged by local and national environmental organizations. The tests consist of zapping tiny samples of the intensely radioactive element plutonium with powerful laser beams. The stated goal of the tests is to ensure that the thousands of nuclear weapons stockpiled in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are still in working condition.

Leaders of NIF insist that the tests are safe and that the program is essential to assure the “safety, security, and reliability” of the warheads in America’s nuclear stockpile. Critics of the plutonium tests, including Livermore-based group Tri-Valley CAREs, have raised concerns about the lack of a containment plan for airborne plutonium particles and the likely contamination of the facility.

David Perlman, “Safety of Warhead-Related Tests at Livermore Lab Challenged,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2015.

U.S. Mayors Call for “Effective Implementation” of NPT

At the close of its 83rd Annual Meeting, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), adopted a strong resolution in support of Mayors for Peace, calling for the “effective implementation” of the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty obligations. Also, the USCM expressed its support for the successful conclusion of Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations. With the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki coming up, the USCM urged policymakers to visit the cities to see the reality of the consequences of atomic bombings with their own eyes.

The resolution “calls on the President and Congress to reduce nuclear weapons spending to the minimum necessary to assure the safety and security of the existing weapons as they await disablement and dismantlement, and to direct those funds to address the pressing needs of cities.”

To read the full resolution, click here.

July’s Featured Blog

This month’s featured blog is Strategic Security, written by Hans Kristensen of Federation of American Scientists. Kristensen is an expert on a vast array of nuclear weapons issues, and writes authoritatively on nuclear modernization programs around the world and the details of the nuclear-armed nations’ nuclear stockpiles.

Recent titles by Kristensen include “Pentagon Report: China Deploys MIRV Missile” and “Obama Administration Releases New Warhead Numbers.”

This Month in Nuclear Threat History

History chronicles many instances when humans have been threatened by nuclear weapons. In this article, Jeffrey Mason outlines some of the most serious threats that have taken place in the month of July, including the July 27, 1956 incident in which a U.S. B-47 bomber crashed into a storage bunker holding three Mark 6 nuclear bombs.

To read Mason’s full article, click here.

For more information on the history of the Nuclear Age, visit NAPF’s Nuclear Files website.

American University Exhibit Commemorating Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a powerful exhibit at American University in Washington, DC will take place through August. The show will include 20 artifacts collected from the debris of the 1945 atomic bombings as well as six 24-foot folding screens that depict the horrors of the event.

The exhibition is intended to deepen understanding of the damage wrought by nuclear weapons, and to inspire peace in the 21st century. For more information, click here.

Sadako Peace Day is August 6

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation will hold its 21st Annual Sadako Peace Day commemoration event on Thursday, August 6. This year’s event, which falls on the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, remembers the victims of the U.S. atomic bombings and all innocent victims of war. NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell will deliver this year’s keynote address.

The program also includes music, poetry and reflection. Click here to view the invitation.

The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Sadako Peace Garden at La Casa de Maria – 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito, California. The event is free and open to the public.

Peace Leadership in Tijuana

Paul K. Chappell, Peace Leadership Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, gave a panel presentation on “Waging Peace Today” to 400 attendees at the Playas de Tijuana inaugural event for the international exhibit, “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit,” on Thursday, June 18th, at the Casa de Cultura Playas as part of the Municipal Art and Culture Institute of Tijuana, Mexico. Other speakers included Dr. Jorge Astiazaran, the mayor of Tijuana, and Robert Rios, General Director of Soka Gakkai of Mexico.

“Paul’s powerful message, the seeds he planted, resonated strongly in many hearts and minds,” said exhibit coordinator Susan Smith.

To read more about this event, click here.

NAPF President David Krieger to Speak in Maui

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, will be the featured speaker at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event will take place on August 6 at 5:30 pm at the University of Hawaii Maui College. It is organized by Maui Peace Action.

For more information, email mauipeaceaction@earthlink.net.

 

“If forced into war by India, Pakistan will respond in a befitting manner; our [nuclear] arms are not meant for decoration.”

— Khwaja Asif, Defense Minister of Pakistan

 

“We must teach an elemental truth: that status and presige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them.”

— Ban Ki-moon, South Korean diplomat and 8th United Nations Secretary-General. This quote is featured in the book Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action, available online in the NAPF Peace Store.

 

“Nuclear weapons are not ordinary munitions and the conditions for eliminating them do not exist in today’s world.”

— Ambassador Adam Scheinman, head of the United States delegation to the 2015 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Click here to read his full op-ed in The Hill.

 

Fiona Hayman

McKenna Jacquemet

David Krieger

Lauren Pak

Carol Warner

Rick Wayman

Grand Bargain Is Not So Grand

by David Krieger

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has two major purposes and together they form a grand bargain. First, the treaty seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries.  Second, the treaty seeks to level the playing field by the pursuit of negotiations in good faith to end the nuclear arms race at an early date and to achieve nuclear disarmament. The goal of the grand bargain, in other words, is a world without nuclear weapons.

It is the disarmament side of the grand bargain, though, where things really break down. The five nuclear-armed countries that are parties to the NPT (US, Russia, UK, France and China) appear more comfortable working together to maintain and modernize their nuclear arsenals than they do to fulfilling their disarmament obligations under the treaty. Their common strategy appears to be “nuclear weapons forever.”

To read more, click here.

Exclusive Interview With General Lee Butler

by Robert Kazel

Today, General Lee Butler is 75, and he has never stopped believing nuclear arms to be an enormous danger and outrageously immoral. They permit imperfect leaders to play God, he says, and make it all too easy for the planet to be ruined for all future generations in a span of hours. He’s incredulous that scores of U.S. missiles are still kept on hair-trigger alert, poised to be launched in minutes. And he is more disillusioned than ever that defense strategists and politicians keep defending nuclear deterrence: a theory born in the 1950s that asserts nations can prevent nuclear war by keeping nuclear weapons ready for use in retaliation. Butler believed that once, fervently. But he now says deterrence probably never made much sense, and certainly is unbelievable in a world of unstable, unpredictable regional nuclear actors and terrorists who seek to actually use weapons of vast, destructive power.

Now Butler has penned his life story, a project he painstakingly worked on for many years after he and his wife, Dorene, left Omaha and moved to a gated community in Laguna Beach, Calif., in 2001. The self-published memoir, which he expects to be out this summer, recounts his boyhood in Georgia as part of an Army family and his 33-year military career starting with his graduation from the Air Force Academy in 1961. It explains in depth why he ultimately called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, and discusses his disillusionment with government officials who, he says, have allowed shortsightedness, petty politics and bellicosity to obstruct the road to world nuclear disarmament.

In a wide-ranging interview at his house recently, Butler spoke with NAPF about the perils of nuclear weapons that arose during and just after the Cold War, and why the dangers continue. The following is an edited version of the conversation.

To read more, click here.

Uprising

by Ray Acheson

A certain restiveness could be felt Friday evening at the United Nations at the close of the 2015 NPT Review Conference. The draft outcome document was not adopted, though it was not this fact that seemed to bother most. The content of the final draft was unacceptably weak on disarmament, as the majority of those taking the floor lamented in their closing remarks, and the process to develop it was extremely problematic. The discontent was rather about why it had been rejected. Three states parties blocked its adoption on behalf of Israel, a non-state party possessing nuclear weapons. If the month-long review of the Treaty’s implementation and attempts to develop actions for moving forward had not already sufficiently underscored the depth of the Treaty’s discriminatory orientation privileging nuclear-armed states, the Conference’s conclusion certainly did.

But the Conference has ended, leaving interested states now with the chance to pursue effective measures for nuclear disarmament. Instead of a text that moves backwards in some areas from previous commitments and threatened to stall progress for another five years, states parties can continue to rely on the outcomes from 1995, 2000, and 2010 to guide their actions in terms of Treaty implementation. And in the meantime, there is also space for what the Washington Post describes as “an uprising” of 107 states and civil society groups. These states are “seeking to reframe the disarmament debate as an urgent matter of safety, morality and humanitarian law,” and have pledged to fill the gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

To read more, click here.

The Marshall Islands and the NPT

In a recent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Robert Alvarez writes about the history and impact of U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands. He also explores the importance of the Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero Lawsuits for upholding the disarmament promises of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the momentum of the effort to highlight the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.

Alvarez writes, “The humanitarian initiative and the Marshall Islands lawsuits have received a chilly, some might say hostile reception from the nuclear weapons states, for an understandable reason: The nuclear weapons countries are engaged in costly modernization efforts that all but guarantee the continued existence of nuclear weapons for decades, and perhaps beyond. The Marshall’s lawsuits and the humanitarian initiative both seek to make the nuclear states seriously negotiate toward nuclear disarmament.”

Robert Alvarez, “The Marshall Islands and the NPT,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 27, 2015.

What the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits Seek to Accomplish

by David Krieger

These are important lawsuits.  They have been described as a battle of David versus the nine nuclear Goliaths.  In this case, however, David (the RMI) is using the nonviolent means of the courtroom and the law rather than a slingshot and a rock.  It is worth considering what these lawsuits seek to accomplish.

• To challenge the “good faith” of the nuclear-armed countries, for their failure to initiate negotiations for nuclear disarmament as required by the NPT and customary international law.
• To awaken people everywhere to the magnitude of the threat posed by nuclear weapons.
• To achieve a “conversion of hearts,” recognized by Pope Francis as necessary for effective action in changing the world on this most challenging of threats.

These are high aspirations from a small but courageous country.  If you would like to know more about the Marshall Islands Nuclear Zero lawsuits, and how you can help support them, visit www.nuclearzero.org.

David Krieger, “What the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits Seek to Accomplish,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, May 6, 2015.

MOX Gets Golden Hammer Award for Egregious Waste

 

The Washington Times has awarded its Golden Hammer Award to South Carolina’s Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel facility. The MOX program, which is intended to convert 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power plants, is viewed by many as an egregious example of government waste.

In 2004, the project was expected to cost $1.6 billion, with a completion date of 2007. Now, in 2015, over $4 billion has been spent on the project, which is only 67% completed. Congress appears likely to provide $345 million in funding for MOX in Fiscal Year 2016. At this rate, studies have shown that the lifecycle costs for MOX will reach $114 billion. The MOX plant also lost its only potential customer for the fuel, Duke Energy. No other nuclear utility has been willing to take the risk of using MOX fuel in nuclear reactors.

Kellan Howell, “Congress Keeps Funding Overbudget Plutonium Site with No Real Customers,” Washington Times, May 7, 2015.

UK Whistleblower on Trident Submarine Dangers

 

The safety and security of the Royal Navy’s four Vanguard-class nuclear submarines, each carrying more than a dozen Trident nuclear missiles, was called into question when William McNeilly claimed that Britain’s nuclear weapons system was an “accident waiting to happen.” The damning 18-page report includes accusations of lax security, fire hazards, and poor quality food among other things.

The Royal Navy has firmly dismissed these allegations, while some defense experts admitted that there could be elements of truth in some of McNeilly’s claims. Historically, the Ministry of Defense has downplayed incidents involving its submarines, stating that the “technical complexity of running a nuclear submarine is vast.”

Jamie Merrill, “Trident Whistleblower William McNeilly Transferred to Portsmouth Naval Base as Royal Navy Disputes his Claims About the ‘Silent Service,’” The Independent, May 22, 2015.

U.S. Conducts Minuteman Missile Test During NPT Review Conference

 

Three days before the end of the 2015 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the U.S. conducted a test of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The Minuteman III is the United States’ land-based missile that is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the other side of the planet in around 30 minutes.

The test went against the call of dozens of nations at the NPT Review Conference for the U.S. and other nuclear-armed nations to take their nuclear weapons off high-alert status and to pursue negotiations for nuclear disarmament. The Air Force Global Strike Command stated that the ICBM test launch program is to “verify the effectiveness, readiness, and accuracy of the weapons system.”

Rick Wayman, Director of Programs and Operations at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, commented, “Conducting a nuclear missile test, particularly at this time, sends a clear signal to the international community that the United States believes it can continue to possess nuclear weapons indefinitely and with impunity.”

“U.S. Schedules Yet Another Controversial Minuteman III Test,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, May 19, 2015.

Women Cross Border Between North and South Korea

 

Women Cross DMZ, an international group of female peace activists led by Gloria Steinem, crossed one of the world’s most militarized borders, between North and South Korea, in order to draw attention to the need for a permanent peace treaty. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula. Other goals of the group were to highlight the suffering of divided families and promoting peace over war.

Mairead Maguire and Medea Benjamin, both members of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Advisory Council, took part in the action. Maguire, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, said, “We are here today because we don’t believe in war. You can get to human rights when you have a normal situation and not a country at war.”

“Gloria Steinem and Female Activists Cross Korean Demilitarized Zone,” The Guardian, May 24, 2015.

Transform Now Plowshares Activists Released from Prison

 

On May 8, a federal appeals court ruled that the government had overreached in charging three Transform Now Plowshares activists with sabotage, ordering the release of Sister Megan Rice and her two fellow activists. The group nonviolently broke into the grounds of the Y-12 Highly-Enriched Uranium Manufacturing Facility on July 28, 2012 and conducted a symbolic conversion of the site, spreading human blood and painting peace slogans on the walls.

After so much time in jail, Sister Megan Rice, 85, has no intention of stopping her anti-nuclear activism and is more committed than ever. One threat is that the federal government might challenge the recent ruling and try to have her thrown back in prison. “It would be an honor,” Sister Rice said during the ride. “Good Lord, what would be better than to die in prison for the anti-nuclear cause?”

William J. Broad, “Sister Megan Rice, freed From Prison, Is Unapologetic for Anti-Nuclear Activism,” The New York Times, May 26, 2015.

Las Vegas Mayor Opposes Nuclear Waste Shipments

 

In response to a Department of Energy announcement that it would begin shipping uranium waste from Tennessee for storage in Nevada, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said that she would lie down in the highway to stop the transport vehicles.

“We know what happened in the nuclear testing days,” Goodman said. “We were told at the test site, ‘These things are harmless, go out and take your children to watch these wonderful mushroom clouds.’”

“I know it would bring funds to Nevada,” she added. “Sometimes there’s other, better ways to find funding.”

James Dehaven, “Vegas Mayor Will Lie Down on Highway to Block Nuke Shipments,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 5, 2015.

June’s Featured Blog

 

This month’s featured blog is Defusing the Nuclear Threat, written by NAPF Associate Martin Hellman. Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and an expert in risk analysis.

Recent articles include “Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma,” and “Saber Rattling Works, but Which Way?”

To read the blog, which is updated frequently, go to www.nuclearrisk.org.

This Month in Nuclear Threat History

 

History chronicles many instances when humans have been threatened by nuclear weapons. In this article, Jeffrey Mason outlines some of the most serious threats that have taken place in the month of June, including the June 3, 1980 incident in which the malfunction of a 46-cent computer chip caused U.S. warning systems to falsely display that the Soviet Union had launched 2,200 nuclear missiles at the United States.

To read Mason’s full article, click here.

For more information on the history of the Nuclear Age, visit NAPF’s Nuclear Files website.

The Growing U.S. Nuclear Threat

 

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is a network of over 30 groups around the United States, most of which are located in areas that are part of the vast U.S. nuclear weapons complex. ANA recently released a report entitled “The Growing U.S. Nuclear Threat.” The report documents numerous nuclear weapon programs that are part of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration that are vastly over budget, have major oversight and management problems, and a general lack of accountability.

Rick Wayman, NAPF Director of Programs, wrote the executive summary for this report. Wayman wrote, “The Department of Energy’s budget is set to increase this year as in years past. The increased spending will undermine efforts to make the nation more secure. New, provocative investments in weapons programs and infrastructure will undermine non-proliferation efforts and introduce uncertainties into the U.S. stockpile. At the same time, cuts to the cleanup budget and failure to hold DOE and the NNSA accountable leave health risks unaddressed, environmental damage unrepaired, and urgent waste challenges unmet.”

To read the report, click here.

Peace Poetry Awards: Deadline July 1

 

The deadline for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s annual Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards is July 1. The contest encourages poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The Poetry Awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under. Cash prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded to the winners. For more information on how to enter, click here.

Paul Chappell Selected as CMM Institute Fellow

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Peace Leadership Director, Paul K. Chappell, has been selected as a 2015 CMM (Coordinated Management of Meaning) Institute Fellow and is one of six fellows to present at the 2015 CMM Learning Exchange and Global Integral Competence conference. This event will be held in Munich, Germany, from September 17- 20, 2015.

Chappell’s project title is “Literacy in the Art of Living, the Art of Listening, and the Art of Waging Peace.” One of the Institute’s current priorities is to promote research and interventions on selected topics that take a “communication perspective” and contribute to the common good. Proposals for the 2015 fellowships have focused on issues of conflicts and how these may be resolved or prevented by taking a “communication perspective.”

To read more, click here.

Save the Date: Sadako Peace Day is August 6

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation will hold its 21st Annual Sadako Peace Day commemoration event on Thursday, August 6. This year’s event, which falls on the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, remembers the victims of the U.S. atomic bombings and all innocent victims of war. NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell will deliver this year’s keynote address.

The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Sadako Peace Garden at La Casa de Maria – 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito, California. The event is free and open to the public.

 

“Some powerful people make their living with the production of arms. It’s the industry of death.”

— Pope Francis

 

“Why is it that only the security of the five [nuclear-armed members of the NPT] requires nuclear weapons, whilst no one else needs nuclear weapons for their security? If the truth is that no one’s security needs nuclear weapons, then all of our security is enhanced by getting rid of nuclear weapons. If this is indeed the case, what makes it so different for the five that they feel that they have to be exempted from this universal truth?”

— Ambassador Abdul Minty of South Africa. To read his full statement, click here.

 

“No one can keep a straight face and argue that sixteen thousand nuclear weapons are an appropriate threshold for global safety. We are seeing nuclear nations modernize and rebuild when they could use the opportunity to reduce. There is no right to ‘indefinite possession’ to continue to retain nuclear weapons on security grounds.”

— Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. To read his full statement, click here.

 

“Nothing could be worse than fear that one has given up too soon and left one effort unexpended which might have saved the world.”

— Jane Addams (1860-1935), American peace activist and 1931 Nobel Peace Laureate. This quote is featured in the book Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action, available online in the NAPF Peace Store.

 

McKenna Jacquemet
David Krieger
Carol Warner
Rick Wayman

Hubris Versus Wisdom

by David Krieger

Humankind must not be complacent in the face of the threat posed by nuclear weapons.  The future of humanity and all life depends upon the outcome of the ongoing struggle between hubris and wisdom.

Hubris is an ancient Greek word meaning extreme arrogance. Wisdom is cautionary good sense.

Hubris is at the heart of Greek tragedy – the arrogant belief that one’s power is unassailable.  Wisdom counsels that no human fortress is impregnable.

Hubris says some countries can hold onto nuclear weapons and rely upon them for deterrence.  Wisdom, in the voice of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, says these weapons must be eliminated before they eliminate us.

To read more, click here.

Why Are We Planning to Walk Across the DMZ?

by Mairead Maguire

Almost two years ago, when Christine Ahn proposed international women peacemakers walk across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) which separates North and South Korea as an important action to help support Korean women and men working for reconciliation and reuniting of Korean families, I couldn’t resist. This was an important first step in establishing a peace process in which women and civil community would be included.

Many people have asked, “Why are they planning to walk across the DMZ that separates North and South Korea?” Maybe the real question should be, “Why not?”

To read more, click here.

How to Avert a Nuclear War

by James Cartwright and Vladimir Dvorkin

We find ourselves in an increasingly risky strategic environment. The Ukrainian crisis has threatened the stability of relations between Russia and the West, including the nuclear dimension — as became apparent last month when it was reported that Russian defense officials had advised President Vladimir V. Putin to consider placing Russia’s nuclear arsenal on alert during last year’s crisis in Crimea.

Diplomatic efforts have done little to ease the new nuclear tension. This makes it all the more critical for Russia and the United States to talk, to relieve the pressures to “use or lose” nuclear forces during a crisis and minimize the risk of a mistaken launch.

The fact is that we are still living with the nuclear-strike doctrine of the Cold War, which dictated three strategic options: first strike, launch on warning and post-attack retaliation. There is no reason to believe that Russia and the United States have discarded these options, as long as the architecture of “mutually assured destruction” remains intact.

To read more, click here.

Statement of Principle in Support of the Lausanne Agreement

We, the undersigned, encourage and support the ongoing negotiations process that in early April of 2015 resulted in the announcement of a historically significant “framework agreement” in Lausanne, Switzerland. This painfully negotiated initial agreement is between the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and those of the “P5+1″ world powers. Its aim is to resolve peacefully the chronic and dangerous dispute over the peacefulness of Iran’s nuclear energy (and technology) program. While we the undersigned may have different views about other matters, we deem the success of the “Lausanne Agreement” to be a significant and positive step forward (although modest and fragile) toward reduction of tension and violence in our interconnected world.

Nevertheless, we note in profound distress that the long diplomatic process which finally resulted in the Lausanne Agreement has many and diverse opponents, if not determined enemies. These foes (mainly in the U.S., in Israel, and even inside Iran) are trying to prevent the agreement from being finalized by the deadline of June 30, 2015. We believe that their strident and disruptive voices should be opposed nonviolently, by all well-intentioned persons and institutions. Why? Because in our opinion, human history is at a critical juncture in which the dream of a truly peaceful and just world, on our fragile “pale blue dot” (on which life is supposed to be thriving, as opposed to being further harmed every single day) is seriously imperiled. Thus, we, the undersigned, invite all people (and institutions) of good will to lend their support to this modest but significant peace process, in part by signing this petition and spreading its words far and wide.

To read the petition and sign your name, click here.

Marshall Islands to U.S.: Keep Your NPT Promises

On April 9, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) filed its court-ordered Mediation Questionnaire in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the Mediation Questionnaire, the RMI cites a statement made by the U.S. Embassy in the Marshall Islands on February 5, 2015, which asserted that “the U.S. commitment to achieving the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons is unassailable.” Taking the Embassy’s statement at face value, the RMI goes on to say, “If the U.S. were willing to demonstrate that commitment by calling for and convening negotiations for cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament under the NPT (which is the very relief sought by the Marshall Islands), then this case could have strong potential for a successful mediation.”

In subsequent court documents, it became clear that the U.S. did not accept the option for mediation in this appeal. The initial appeal brief from the Marshall Islands is due to the court on July 13, 2015.

“Marshall Islands to U.S. – Keep Your NPT Promises,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, April 9, 2015.

Marshall Islands Delivers Strong Message to NPT Review Conference

 

On April 27, 2015, the first day of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum delivered a strong statement about the current state of nuclear affairs and the urgent need for the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide.

De Brum said, “It should be our collective goal to not only stop the spread of nuclear weapons, but also to truly achieve the peace and security of a world without them, and thus end the cycle of broken promises…. After decades of diplomacy, the NPT’s defining purpose remains unfulfilled, and those who are unwilling to negotiate in good faith will be held to wider account.”

Tony de Brum, “Statement of Marshall Islands to the 2015 NPT Review Conference,” April 27, 2015.

Failed Missile Defense Programs Cost $10 Billion

 

Numerous U.S. missile defense programs once portrayed as vital to national security have been mothballed or completely scrapped due to their unworkable nature. Once lauded, the weapon systems were eventually discovered to be ineffective and/or much more expensive than initially promised.

Retired Air Force General Eugene Habiger, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command, criticized the leaders of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for their repeated blunders. “They are totally off in la-la land,” he said.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon were the major contractors involved in the failed missile defense programs.

David Willman, “The Pentagon’s $10-billion Bet Gone Bad,” Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2015.

Close Call During Cuban Missile Crisis

 

Yet another close encounter with complete annihilation of the human race during the Cuban Missile Crisis has been revealed. U.S. missile officers stationed in Okinawa received a false order to launch nuclear-armed missiles on October 28, 1962. Nearly all of the redundancies and checks imposed upon launching a nuclear strike seemed to have been met and the “three-level confirmation process was taken step-by-step in accordance with a manual by comparing codes in the launch order and codes given to his crew team in advance. All of the codes matched.”

If the officers had followed protocol, they would have launched the missiles, which would have likely resulted in the initiation of a massive nuclear exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Instead, the officer in charge decided to use logic and reason before following orders, leading to the eventual discovery that the order was a mistake.

Masakatsu Ota, “U.S. Veterans Reveal 1962 Nuclear Close Call Dodged in Okinawa,” Kyodo News, March 27, 2015.

Nuclear Weapon Transporter Has Anger Management Issues

 

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s top auditor, the commander of a nuclear courier squad allegedly threatened to kill one of his colleagues. Senior officials did not learn about the allegations for five months. This same commander was also involved in physical altercations with other couriers on at least two other occasions.

The couriers are responsible for transporting nuclear weapons and weapons-usable nuclear materials around the United States to various factories, storage sites and military bases.

R. Jeffrey Smith, “He Handles American Nuclear Weapons, Has Anger Issues,” The Daily Beast, April 10, 2015.

U.S. Reveals It Has Known About Israel’s Nuclear Program for Over 50 Years

 

Despite denials for decades, the U.S. has finally declassified information affirming its knowledge of Israel’s nuclear program since 1960. When the United States first learned of Israel’s development, officials expressed immense “annoyance because Israeli officials at all levels repeatedly provided less than credible answers to U.S. questions about Dimona.” Included in the report are a myriad of other documents indicating dubious practices on the part of the U.S., Israel, the UK and even international agencies. Among these are:

• A secret agreement between Israel and Norway for the sale of Norwegian heavy water to Israel (through the United Kingdom), transmitted by Oslo Embassy political officer Richard Kerry (father of current U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry).
• Reports that the Israelis had a secret nuclear reactor project that involved experiments with plutonium.
• A telegram reporting on Finance Ministry official Addy Cohen’s statement that “we’ve been misbehaving,” and that the secrecy surrounding Dimona was unjustifiable, “a stupid mistake on the part of Israel.”
• Messages about a role for the International Atomic Energy Agency in inspecting and safeguarding Dimona.

Avner Cohen and William Burr, “The U.S. Discovery of Israel’s Secret Nuclear Project,” The National Security Archive, April 15, 2015.

Pension Fund Blacklists Boeing for Work on Nuclear Weapons

 

Nordea Asset Management, the largest financial services group in Northern Europe, has blacklisted Boeing because of its work producing nuclear weapons. Sasja Beslik, head of corporate governance at Nordea, said, “Boeing is in the process of developing a new nuclear program, [which means] we cannot engage with them. These companies will not change their business models, because [nuclear] is too lucrative.” Beslik continued, “We do not believe that the development of new nuclear weapons is needed and we do not want to contribute to the expansion of this business as the potential use of [nuclear arms] is extremely damaging to mankind.”

Boeing is one of many companies that is listed as a “nuclear weapon producer” in the Don’t Bank on the Bomb report, produced by PAX. To see what companies and financial institutions are included in the report, click here.

“Nordea Blacklists Boeing Over Nuclear Arms,” Financial Times, May 3, 2015.

Women’s Power to Stop War

 

Hundreds of women from 80 countries gathered in The Hague April 27-29 for the Women’s Power to Stop War conference. Organized by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in honor if its 100th anniversary, the conference addressed many important global issues.

One such issue is global military spending, which was estimated to be $1.8 trillion in 2014. Speaking at the conference, Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams said, “We have done things, we have banned landmines, we’ve banned cluster munitions … Anything can happen if we get up off our collective butt and work together. With an overarching goal then, however individuals contribute to that goal, we can change the world.”

Liz Ford, “Peace Activists at The Hague Decry $1.8tn Global Military Spend in 2014,” The Guardian, April 29, 2015.

40th Anniversary of the End of the Vietnam War

 

Forty years ago, on April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon, known today as Ho Chi Minh City. On May 1-2, a conference was held in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the anniversary and examine lessons learned during that time.

NAPF President David Krieger has written a letter to the Americans who died in the Vietnam War, which is one of many messages that will be delivered by Veterans for Peace to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day this year.

“We Are Meeting the Pentagon on Battlefield of Memory,” Democracy Now, April 30, 2015.

NPT News In Review

 

Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, produces a newspaper during each Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. The News In Review contains summaries of debates, analysis and opinions, and is an excellent way to stay up to date on the daily proceedings whether you are attending the conference in New York City or not.

To read the News In Review, click here.

This Month in Nuclear Threat History

 

History chronicles many instances when humans have been threatened by nuclear weapons. In this article, Jeffrey Mason outlines some of the most serious threats that have taken place in the month of May, including India’s May 18, 1974 nuclear weapon test, which marked the beginning of a dangerous nuclear arms race in South Asia.

To read Mason’s full article, click here.

For more information on the history of the Nuclear Age, visit NAPF’s Nuclear Files website.

Filling the Legal Gap

 

Reaching Critical Will and Article 36 have produced a brief report summarizing the gaps in existing treaty law related to nuclear weapons that could be filled by a treaty banning nuclear weapons. The “legal gap” regarding prohibition and elimination arises from various deficits in the regulation of activities involving nuclear weapons, as currently codified. The key legal gap that needs to be filled is the explicit prohibition of nuclear weapons and establishment of a framework for their elimination.

To read the report, click here.

Worldwide Nuclear Modernization Programs

 

Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project, delivered an informative presentation at the United Nations on April 28 as part of a side event sponsored by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. Kristensen’s presentation examined in depth the “modernization” programs of Russia and the United States, and provided overviews of the nuclear weapon activities of the other seven nuclear-armed nations (United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea).

To view Kristensen’s presentation, click here.

NAPF at the NPT Review Conference

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was deeply involved during the first week of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City. The conference, which began on April 27, continues through May 22. On the first day of the conference, NAPF held a side event in partnership with the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms. The event, held during the lunch hour, featured Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, lead counsel in the U.S. lawsuit Laurie Ashton and NAPF President David Krieger.

In addition, NAPF representatives spoke on many other panels at the United Nations and in other locations around New York City. For example, David Krieger spoke at Soka Gakkai International’s Culture of Peace lecture series, while Rick Wayman spoke about the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits following a screening of the documentary Nuclear Savage.

Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest Winners

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has announced the winners of the 2015 Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest. The contest, which was open to people around the world, called for videos of up to 90 seconds on “The Imperative of Reaching Nuclear Zero: The Marshall Islands Stands Up for All of Humanity.”

To view the winning videos, click here.

Paul Chappell Speaks at Site of Dayton Peace Accords

 

When Paul K. Chappell, Peace Leadership Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, spoke on “Why World Peace Is Possible” at the annual conference of Southwestern Ohio Rotary District 6670 on April 18  in Dayton, Ohio, he found a willingness among the attendees to reconsider some long-held views.

One Rotarian commented, “I was changed. I went in thinking that peace was impossible. Left thinking there is a way to spread peace. Slow and steady, like curing polio.”

To read more about Paul’s trip to Dayton, click here.

Peace Poetry Awards: Deadline July 1

 

The deadline for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s annual Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards is July 1. The contest encourages poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The Poetry Awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under. Cash prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded to the winners.

 

“Democracy has come to nuclear disarmament.”

— Maritza Chan, Minister Counselor of Costa Rica, speaking at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference on May 4, 2015. To read Costa Rica’s full statement, click here.

 

“Pointing nuclear-tipped missiles at entire nations is an act of unprecedented moral depravity.”

— Bernard Lown, co-founder of the 1985 Nobel Peace Laureate organization International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. This quote appears in the book Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action, which is available in the NAPF Peace Store.

 

“Nuclear arms are weapons of the devil, which will not allow humans to live nor die as humans.”

— Sumitero Taniguchi, an 86-year-old survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, speaking at the Peace and Planet Conference in New York City.

 

“It’s just making sure that if we ever had to use them, they would actually explode.”

— Rose Gottemoeller, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, explaining why the United States plans to spend at least $1 trillion over the next 30 years on a “modernization” program for its nuclear weapons, delivery vehicles and production facilities.

 

David Krieger
Grant Stanton
Carol Warner
Rick Wayman

Nuclear Weapons and Possible Human Extinction: The Heroic Marshall Islanders

by David Krieger

Extinction is a harsh and unforgiving word, a word that should make us shiver. Time moves inexorably in one direction only and, when extinction is complete, there are no further chances for revival. Extinction is a void, a black hole, from which return is forever foreclosed. If we can imagine the terrible void of extinction, then perhaps we can mobilize to forestall its occurrence, even its possibility.

The brilliant American author Jonathan Schell, who wrote The Fate of the Earth and was an ardent nuclear abolitionist, had this insight into the Nuclear Age: “We prepare for our extinction in order to assure our survival.” He refers to the irony and idiocy of reliance upon nuclear weapons to avert nuclear war.

To read more, click here.

Why We Need Peace Heroes

by Paul K. Chappell

The art of living requires us to understand what it means to be human, because the art of living works with the medium of our shared humanity, just as painting works with color and music works with sound. The art of living also requires us to learn the art of waging peace, because peace is the process and product of living well. Instead of saying our society is illiterate in peace, a more accurate phrase is “preliterate in peace.” Three thousand years ago, there were many brilliant Greeks and Trojans who did not understand the importance of becoming literate in reading. And today, there are many brilliant people in our society who do not yet understand the importance of becoming literate in living well, waging peace, and our shared humanity.

Because environmental destruction, nuclear weapons, and war can drive humanity extinct, this new kind of literacy I am describing is necessary for human survival. Just as people today recognize that illiteracy in reading is a serious problem, we must create a future where people recognize that illiteracy in the art of living and the art of waging peace is also a serious problem. To take their society to the next level, a civilization such as the ancient Greeks had to prioritize literacy. To take our global society to the next level, we must prioritize literacy in living well, waging peace, and our shared humanity.

To read more, click here.

Marshall Islands to Appeal to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

The lawsuit brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) against the United States is not going away anytime soon. While the case was dismissed on February 3, 2015 by the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, on April 2, 2015, this small island nation took the important step of formally filing its Notice of Appeal.

Earlier this year, U.S. Federal District Court dismissed the case on the jurisdictional grounds of standing and political question doctrine without getting to the merits of the case. Laurie Ashton, lead attorney for the RMI, expressed strong disagreement with the court’s ruling, saying, “We believe the District Court erred in dismissing the case. The Marshall Islands, like every party to the NPT, is entitled to the United States’ fulfillment of its NPT promise – negotiations for nuclear disarmament. Further, the U.S. President does not enjoy exclusive purview to determine the U.S. breach of its treaty obligations. Instead, the judiciary has an obligation to rule in this treaty dispute.”

“The Marshall Islands Will Not Back Down,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, April 2, 2015.

Marshallese Can Rightfully Claim a Victory

 

In Embassy, one of Canada’s top publications on foreign affairs issues, Cesar Jaramillo and Debbie Grisdale describe the main details of the Marshall Islands’ Nuclear Zero Lawsuits.

Speaking particularly to their Canadian audience, they write, “However the court rules, the effort by the RMI to hold nuclear armed states accountable is worthy of support in Canada and beyond. Canada recognizes the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction and has historically aligned with the rule of law.”

Cesar Jaramillo and Debbie Grisdale, “Marshallese Can Rightfully Claim a Victory,” Embassy, March 25, 2015.

U.S. Pressures Allies to Reject Austrian Pledge

 

The United States has pressured Japan, Norway and likely many other allied countries to reject the Austrian Pledge, which calls for efforts to “stigmatise, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.” While Japan sponsors a resolution annually at the United Nations General Assembly calling for states to take action towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, the Japanese government felt pressured by the United States to reject the Austrian Pledge.

According to a Japanese government official, Japan’s reliance on the U.S. nuclear “umbrella” is more important than supporting an effort to negotiate a treaty banning and eliminating nuclear weapons.

“Because of U.S. Nuclear Umbrella, Japan Not to Support Austrian Document Seeking Atomic Weapons Ban,” Kyodo, March 13, 2015.

U.S. Finally Admits that Israel Has Nuclear Weapons

 

A report prepared for the Pentagon in the late 1980s has been released under the Freedom of Information Act. The report describes Israel as having nuclear weapon development and production facilities “equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.”

While it has been widely known for years that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, the United States government has played along with Israel’s position of “strategic ambiguity” for decades. This document’s release marks the first time that the U.S. government has officially disclosed its knowledge of Israeli nuclear weapons programs.

William Greider, “It’s Official: The Pentagon Finally Admitted that Israel Has Nuclear Weapons, Too,” The Nation, March 20, 2015.

GOP Senators Send Letter to Iran in Attempt to Undermine Nuclear Negotiations

 

Forty-seven Republican Senators have sent a letter to Iran’s leadership in an attempt to undermine negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. The letter, written by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, states that the signers view any negotiated agreement as an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. It goes on to state that future U.S. Presidents could “revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.”

“Part II: Iran Responds to GOP Letter,” United States Institute of Peace, March 9, 2015.

Iran Nuclear Negotiations Continue

 

The latest self-imposed deadline of March 31 has passed in the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1. Negotiations have mostly been portrayed as positive, but important points of disagreement remain.

The Americans want to establish quantitative limits: how many centrifuges can spin, how much nuclear fuel can be produced, etc. The Iranians, on the other hand, are focused on maintaining sovereignty and reassuring Iranian citizens that they are standing their ground. Additionally, the pace of sanctions relief is an unresolved issue.

Joe Cirincione, President of the Ploughshares Fund, recently published an article entitled “How to Know if the Iran Deal Is a Good Deal.” Click here to read it.

Michael Gordon, “Iran Nuclear Talks Are Extended for Another Day,” The New York Times, April 1, 2015.

Why Is China Modernizing Its Nuclear Arsenal?

 

China’s nuclear modernization program often receives more attention than the programs of other nuclear-armed nations, even though its nuclear arsenal is far inferior to that of Russia or the United States. Chinese analysts often point to concerns about the United States’ first strike capability as a reason for modernizing. The analysts also say that China believes it must modernize its nuclear arsenal to remain viable against massive U.S. nuclear and conventional weapon modernization.

Chinese analysts also point to the disparity in numbers of nuclear weapons. Despite the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia, which has reduced the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons those two countries can have, the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States are still nearly 20 times larger than China’s. Interestingly, under the definition of “deployed” in the New START Treaty, China would be considered to have zero nuclear weapons.

Gregory Kulacki, “Why Is China Modernizing Its Nuclear Arsenal?” All Things Nuclear, April 1, 2015.

Russia Calls on U.S. to Remove Nuclear Weapons from Europe

 

Russia has called on the United States to remove its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe. Currently, the United States has approximately 180 nuclear weapons in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey under a NATO nuclear sharing agreement. Russia claims that this arrangement is “in direct contradiction to the letter and spirit of the Non-Proliferation Treaty” because it involves the use of military equipment and personnel of non-nuclear weapon states.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons on the territories of NATO allies “is consistent with the NPT” because the NATO nuclear sharing agreement was in place before the NPT entered into force in 1970.

Tony Halpin, “Russia Calls on U.S. to Remove Its Nuclear Weapons from Europe,” Bloomberg Business, March 24, 2015.

Russia and U.S. Test ICBMs

 

In March, both Russia and the United States conducted tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles – land-based missiles that carry nuclear warheads. Russia tested its SS-26 Rubezh missile on March 18, while the U.S. conducted tests of its Minuteman III missile on March 23 and 27.

Speaking about the March 27 Minuteman III launch, Lt. Col. Daniel Hays, commander of the 341st Missile Wing Task Force, said, “These launches are a visible reminder to both our adversaries and our allies of the readiness and capability of the Minuteman III weapon system.”

To read NAPF President David Krieger’s response to the U.S. tests from Vandenberg Air Force Base, click here.

Brian Everstine, “Missile Crews Complete Two Successful Test Launches in One Week,” Air Force Times, March 27, 2015.

NPT Action Plan Monitoring Report

 

In advance of this month’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, Reaching Critical Will has published a new report that examines progress that countries have made toward implementing the 2010 Action Plan agreed to at the 2010 NPT Review Conference. The 64-point action plan was intended to further the implementation of the NPT.

Reaching Critical Will’s monitoring report provides a straightforward review and assessment of the Plan’s implementation. In addition to actions on nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the report covers the initiatives related to the Middle East weapons of mass destruction free zone and the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.

Many of the 64 action points, particularly those relating to nuclear disarmament, continue to receive a failing mark.

To read the report, click here.

This Month in Nuclear Threat History

 

History chronicles many instances when humans have been threatened by nuclear weapons. In this article, Jeffrey Mason outlines some of the most serious threats that have taken place in the month of April, including the April 11, 1950 crash of a B-29 Superfortress strategic bomber in New Mexico, in which 13 crew members died. The plane was carrying a nuclear weapon on board, but the nuclear warhead did not detonate.

To read Mason’s full article, click here.

For more information on the history of the Nuclear Age, visit NAPF’s Nuclear Files website.

Consequences of Limited and Large-Scale Nuclear War

 

Dr. Ira Helfand, co-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, delivered an important overview of the consequences of limited and large-scale nuclear war at a planning meeting for the upcoming World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Atlanta.

Dr. Helfand explained that even in a limited regional nuclear war, the consequences would be global. Soot from burning cities would block sunlight and prevent crops from growing in many parts of the planet, leading to widespread famine that could kill up to two billion people.

To watch the 10-minute video of Ira Helfand’s presentation, click here.

Nuclear Weapons in Your Backyard

 

Physicians for Social Responsibility has created an interactive map showing U.S. nuclear facilities and the locations of many mishaps involving nuclear weapons throughout history. Many readers of The Sunflower may be surprised to discover that a nuclear weapon accident has taken place near their home.

To see the map and read more information about the project, click here.

Global Wave on April 26

 

The Global Wave will involve a simple public action in cities around the world in a timed fashion over 24 hours just before the 2015 NPT Review Conference in New York City. Starting at a major peace rally in New York City on April 26, and then proceeding westward through each time zone every hour, humanity will “Wave Goodbye to Nuclear Weapons” through symbolic Wave events.

The action will engage parliamentarians, mayors, religious leaders, youth, environmentalists, human rights activists, sports clubs, celebrities and other representatives of civil society. The action in some places will be small and symbolic – in other places it will be larger and more celebratory.

Global Wave 2015 is part of Peace and Planet: Mobilization for a Nuclear Free, Just and Sustainable World. To get involved in this exciting global action, click here.

NAPF at Peace and Planet Mobilization

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is involved in many activities around the upcoming Peace and Planet Mobilization in New York City on April 24-26. NAPF is co-sponsoring a workshop at the Peace and Planet conference entitled “Small Islands, Big Threats: The Marshall Islands Tackle Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change.” The Foundation will also have a booth at the Peace Festival from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, April 26 in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza.

If you are in the New York area, please join us for these important events. For more information on the Peace and Planet Mobilization and to register, click here.

Event on Nuclear Zero Lawsuits at the United Nations

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms is co-sponsoring a lunchtime event on the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits at the United Nations on April 27, the first day of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Speakers at the event include: Tony de Brum, Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands; Laurie Ashton, lead counsel for the Marshall Islands in the lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court; and David Krieger, NAPF President and member of the legal team working on the lawsuits at the International Court of Justice.

The event is inside United Nations headquarters and is only open to government and NGO representatives with building passes.

New Booklets Now Available

 

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has just published two new booklets to raise awareness around the urgent need for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The first booklet is based on NAPF President David Krieger’s list of 15 moral reasons to abolish nuclear weapons. The second booklet, entitled “Nuclear Zero: Believe,” contains quotes from leaders of many different faith traditions that support the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Click here to view the 15 moral reasons booklet. Click here for the “Nuclear Zero: Believe” booklet. To order hard copies of these booklets for distribution in your area, please email rwayman@napf.org.

Peace Leadership and Civil Rights

 

NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell touched a part of civil rights history on March 29 as keynote speaker for the Durr Lecture Series at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama. Chappell, who grew up in Huntsville, helped to bring closure to a time period of remembering. Only several days earlier, at the reenactment of the conclusion of the civil rights march from Selma to the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of Governor George Wallace, hugged and held hands in prayer.

Among many topics, Chappell discussed how, from a military perspective, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. were strategic geniuses, more brilliant and innovative than any general in history. They were courageous warriors who advanced a more effective method than waging war for providing national and global security. “Gandhi said, ‘I am a soldier, but a solider of peace.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘In the nonviolent army, there is room for everyone who wants to join.’”

To read more about Paul’s recent trip to Alabama, click here.

Upcoming NAPF Lectures

 

In the coming weeks, NAPF representatives will be giving public lectures around the United States. If you are in the area of any of these lectures, we would be pleased to see you there. For more information on these events, please call NAPF at (805) 965-3443.

On April 27 at 7:30 p.m., NAPF President David Krieger will deliver a lecture in New York City as part of the SGI Culture of Peace Lecture Series.

On May 3-4, NAPF Peace Leadership Director Paul K. Chappell will speak at Kent State University to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the killing of four students by National Guard troops during a protest against the Vietnam War. Paul will be joined by Dick Gregory and many others.

NAPF Peace Poetry Contest

 

The deadline for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s annual Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards is July 1. The contest encourages poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The Poetry Awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under. Cash prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded to the winners.

April is National Poetry Month, so it is a great time to submit your poems. For full details on the poetry contest, click here.

 

“There’s an increasing urgency on the part of those countries that do not have nuclear weapons to say to the nuclear weapons powers: ‘You need to disarm, you need to fulfill your side of the bargain.’”

— Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. Ms. Kane recently announced her decision to step down from her position after serving for three years.

 

“We are robbing America’s future to pay for unneeded weapons of the past.”

— Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), introducing the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act on March 23, 2015.

 

“The hope of humankind is that compassion and compromise may replace the cruel and senseless violence of armed conflicts.”

— Benjamin B. Ferencz, American attorney and prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal. This quote is featured in the book Speaking of Peace: Quotations to Inspire Action, available from the NAPF Peace Store.

 

Keanna Cohen
David Krieger
Grant Stanton
Carol Warner
Rick Wayman