Voice of Revolution

Demonstrate Against the SPP

One Humanity, One Struggle!

War criminal George W. Bush will be going to Canada for a summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The SPP has been organized and pushed by the biggest monopolies of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with U.S. monopolies dominating and dictating arrangements. Its aim is to secure all of North America, its human and natural resources, for U.S. imperialism’s drive for world empire. It is a plan for annexation and militarization that must not pass!

The peoples of all three countries are rising against the SPP and fighting instead for fraternal relations among the peoples. They are rejecting the broad attack on the rights of the people in all three countries that the SPP represents. The SPP summits of the three heads of state are a main target. The last summit, in Cancun, Mexico was met with resistance and the one August 20-21 in Quebec is also being met with demonstrations. Meetings, teach-ins and webpages are being used to inform and mobilize the public. Voice of Revolution will be in Quebec for the actions and urges everyone to get informed and demonstrate: No to the SPP and Annexation! Yes to Sovereignty and Fraternal Relations Among the Peoples! (see www.usmlo.org and www.cpcml.ca for more information)

The openly pro-monopoly and anti-people character of the SPP is evident in the fact that decisions about it are being made by the CEO’s of the most powerful monopolies. The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which brings 30 top CEOs from all three countries together, is not only pushing the plans, they are demanding that governments act more quickly to implement them. The NACC includes giants like GM, Ford, Lockheed Martin, Chevron, GE and Wal-Mart.

The U.S. also has in place US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), its military mechanism to enforce annexation and integration of military and civilian police forces across North America. It provides “command and control” for military actions inside the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Already, ahead of President Bush, USNORTHCOM forces dictated that a planned public meeting could not be held at a community center, several miles from the summit site in Quebec. Instead, the public community center was taken as a command and control center for the U.S. army, with the Canadian RCMP and Sûreté du Quebec police forces forced to do as the Army dictated.

Despite this interference and the effort of the U.S. to militarize all of life in all three countries, the peoples are remaining firm in defense of rights, including their right to protest. There is recognition that the SPP is connected with the U.S. path of war and fascism and that a main aim is a “secure homefront.” The U.S. wants the human and natural resources of all three countries for its wars and aggression. The peoples say NO! We are One Humanity with One Struggle! Americans opposing U.S. war and fascism are making clear that the government will not succeeded in pitting us against the peoples of the world. Far from it, the united struggle of the peoples against the SPP, against war in Iraq, in defense of rights on Mayday, against nuclear weapons and more, is growing stronger.

Down with U.S. Imperialism!
No to Annexation and Militarization!
Yes to Fraternal Unity of the Peoples!

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Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes!

War Criminal Bush Not Welcome in Canada! No to Secret Deals! U.S. Army Out of Canada!

TML Daily August 12, 2007

Militant actions are being organized across Canada to oppose the third summit of the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) scheduled to take place August 20-21 at the Chateau Montebello, in Montebello, Quebec. This meeting of CEOs of the most powerful North American monopolies presided over by the war criminal George W. Bush is organized to facilitate the further plunder of the social wealth and resources of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. for the private gain of a tiny minority of oligarchs. The very conception of a society responsible to its members is anathema to the tiny elite that has usurped power and uses all the resources of the state to pay the rich. The agenda of the SPP is unacceptable to the peoples of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico who are organizing against it.

It was announced in June that the RCMP and the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ) will be enforcing a 15-mile security perimeter around the meeting site, Chateau Montebello. According to officials in Montebello, there will be checkpoints at Thurso, Quebec to the west and Hawkesbury, Ontario to the east where they state that vehicles carrying more than five people will be turned back. Monopoly media who are favorable to the Security and Prosperity Partnership will not be subject to the 15-mile limit. Local residents who live on the riverfront opposite the Chateau have been ordered to move from their houses. Others will be asked to leave their homes, show ID or submit to other arrangements all of a fascist nature. All of it is done in the name of high ideals decided behind the backs of the people. Political opponents are considered “troublemakers,” “behavior problems” and fair targets of police repression.

On July 12, the Municipality of Papineauville informed the Council of Canadians that the RCMP, the Sûreté du Quebec (SQ) and the U.S. Army intervened to rescind the rental agreement with the Council for the Centre Communautaire de Papineauville.

Frederic Castonguay, the municipality of Papineauville’s general manager, said he had been called by Mr. Guy Coté of the SQ and was told they were not permitted to rent the space to anyone because police and U.S. Army would be commandeering the community center, ostensibly as a base of operations for Summit security.

“It is deplorable that we are being prevented from bringing together a panel of writers, academics and parliamentarians to share their concerns about the Security and Prosperity Partnership with Canadians,” said Brent Patterson, director of organizing with the Council of Canadians. “Meanwhile, six kilometers away, corporate leaders from the United States, Mexico and Canada will have unimpeded access to our political leaders.”

It is unconscionable that in the 21st century an obsolete force can consider itself omnipotent and that it can do what it pleases with human persons and their lives and resources.

The people say no! Since the meeting in Montebello was announced, activists have been organizing to inform the public of the behind-closed-door anti-people agenda and what the war criminal U.S. President George W. Bush and his sidekicks Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon are up to. All manner of protests, teach-ins and other activities are taking place and thousands are expected to converge in the area surrounding Montebello on August 20 when the Summit is scheduled to take place. An autonomous camp and convergence point has already been set up for all those traveling to Montebello for the Days of Action. For information visit www.campement.net.

On August 12, the final planning Consulta for the days of action is taking place in Montreal. Organizers say, “We strongly encourage all groups to attend this Consulta, so that we can share information and make last minute decisions about the mobilizations against Bush, Harper, Calderon and the SPP.” The Consulta will be held in room R-M 110 at UQAM (315 Ste-Catherine St. E; metro Berri-UQAM). Those who plan to participate are asked to confirm via email: info@psp-spp.com.

On August 13 a public assembly is taking place in Montebello where organizations heading the protests will provide information on the SPP and why they are organizing to oppose it and the visit of Bush. The assembly will take place at 7:00 pm at École St-Michel, 240, rue Bonsecours.

On August 19 a march will take place on Parliament Hill at 1:00 pm. It will also be a day of “creative resistance and popular education” against the SPP in the Montebello-area. The organizers state, “We encourage affinity groups to organize autonomous actions within the framework of creative resistance, and call on individuals to join in a collective action of popular education.”

On August 20, the main action, a protest and disruption of Bush, Harper, Calderon and the SPP will take place at 12:00 noon at the Chateau Montebello or as close as possible to Montebello.

For the full list of events across the country, click here.

The number of actions across the country shows that in spite of the obstructions by the Canadian state, its police and the U.S. Army, activists remain undaunted and are continuing to plan and organize for a militant expression of the people against the SPP and for alternatives which favor their interests.

It is the militant opposition of the Canadian, American and Mexican working class and people to the annexationist and warmongering agendas of the financial elite, which defends freedom, democracy and human rights. Only when the people are the decision-makers in all matters which affect their lives and societies will their rights, freedoms and sovereignty be provided with a guarantee.

Canadians will never accept the U.S. Army being deployed on Canadian territory or the territory of other nations. It will not pass! Such “interoperability” of the Canadian armed forces with the U.S. military is against the people’s interests, whether in Canada, the U.S., Mexico or all of Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, Oceania or Europe.

All out to participate in the days of action to oppose the SPP, denounce the visit of war criminal George W. Bush to Canada and all secret deals and annexationist plans!

Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes!
War Criminal Bush
Not Welcome in Canada!
No to Secret Deals!
U.S. Army Out of Canada!

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Hold Government Accountable for Crimes

Minnesota Bridge Collapse & the SPP

The recent bridge collapse in Minnesota on Interstate 35 (I-35) is a brutal crime of the government. The disaster, like that after Katrina, is government-organized. Since 1990 federal and state officials knew the bridge was dangerous and needed repair. At the time of the collapse, it had a deficiency rating of 50 percent, considered the threshold for replacement. Clearly, 50 percent should be the threshold for closure! No one in the country could fail to see the direct relationship between the now $600 billion spent on war and destruction, while a basic duty of government, the safety of the highways, is left to chance — all with the claim that there is no money.

The death and destruction imposed on Minnesota is fully the responsibility of the federal government. So are repairs of all bridges nationwide in similar conditions. Yet President George W. Bush, far from ensuring no future death bridges and immediately paying reparations to all the families involved and state and local governments for the crime of failing to maintain the interstate highways, simply promises to “help.”

Katrina survivors, still waiting two years later for the government to take responsibility and guarantee their right to return and rebuild, let it be known that such government promises mean nothing, not for people in Minnesota, not for those in New Orleans. They also urged the people of Minnesota to do as they have done — charge the government for its crimes and demand reparations and punishment, while organizing and relying on themselves to defend rights.

The particular collapse on the I-35 bridge at rush hour can also be tied to the push by the U.S. for greatly increased trade between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, all for the benefit of the monopolies. I-35 is one of the main highways of what is known as the NAFTA Superhighway, stretching from Laredo Texas, through Kansas City, Missouri and on up through Minnesota into Canada. One result is a big increase in truck traffic and the corresponding wear and tear on highways.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) back in 1998 warned that increased truck traffic would be a safety concern with bridges in states along the I-35 corridor. These include, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Data for 2002 shows a steady increase in truck traffic. An estimated 280.7 million tons of freight moved through Minnesota, with 86 percent carried by truck. The level is steadily increasing, while maintaining the highways and providing for the safety of truck drivers and all motorists continues to decline.

The NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) trade serves has harmed the peoples of all three countries — forcing huge migration of workers, pushing wages down, damaging the environment and putting natural resources, including oil, water and gas from Canada and Mexico into the hands of the U.S. monopolies. It has meant the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and the death wall at the border, and now death and injury at the death bridge in Minnesota. The peoples are refusing to accept these crimes and organizing to hold the government accountable and to replace it if it refuses to do its duty.

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Arrangements for Annexation

Kansas City SuperPort to Have Mexican Customs

For about three years Kansas City, Missouri, officials have been working with Mexican and U.S. officials to secure a Mexican Customs clearance facility in Kansas City. It would be the first foreign customs facility on U.S. soil. The project has been delayed in part by the elections in Mexico, but work with the new Mexican government is again going forward. Kansas City has already provided $2.5 million for building the site.

Kansas City is about 1,000 miles from the Mexican border. It is already the largest rail center (by tonnage) in the U.S., sits at the junction of three main interstates, I-35, I-70, I-29, is located on the largest inland waterway, of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and its airport is a major cargo handler.

Its development as a “Superport” is integral to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and overall U.S. plans for annexing Canada and Mexico. This can be seen, for example, in a meeting of 200 business and government officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, hosted in the city in 2005. It promoted Kansas City as “an economic and transportation hub of North America.” It is reported that discussions took place on how to utilize cheaper labor from Mexico, how to streamline border crossings and how to more fully integrate the agencies responsible for border crossings in all three countries. Like the upcoming SPP meeting in Quebec, the monopolies played a major role in pushing these plans.

City officials explain that once the customs facility is operational, it will first be used for U.S. cargo heading south. However, it is also the case that the Superport is being promoted as a means to facilitate the movement of containers from Asia, mainly China, through the Mexican port at Lazaro Cardenas, across the Laredo, Texas crossing and up to Kansas City. Either way, having the facility in Kansas City serves as a precedent and one the U.S. wants and will no doubt take advantage of.

At such a facility, inside the U.S., Mexico would have little ability to counter any the U.S. takes that counter whatever Mexico may decide about freight. At the same time, locating a Mexican facility in the U.S. opens the door for the U.S. to demand one in Mexico. Securing various means for U.S. police agencies, such as customs officials and border patrol to get into Mexico is a main aim of the various Security and Prosperity arrangements. The development of the Kansas City Superport with its customs facility is a means to concretize such arrangements. As a top U.S. border official said, the idea of having the Mexican customs in Kansas City is “bold and innovative.”

Consistent with this direction, in 2005 Kansas City signed a cooperative pact with representatives from the Mexican state of Michoacan, where Lazaro Cardenas is located, to increase the cargo volume between Lazaro Cardenas and Kansas City. Cardenas has also been upgraded as a port. The general plan is to have shipments pre-screened in Asia with the shipper sending advance notification to Mexican and American Customs with the corresponding ‘’pre-clearance’’ information on the cargo. Upon arrival in Mexico, containers will pass through multiple X-ray and gamma ray screenings, to target particular containers for further inspection.

Container shipments will then be tracked using “intelligent transportation systems,” or ITS, that could include global positioning systems or radio frequency identification systems, and monitored on their way to inland trade-processing centers in Kansas City and elsewhere in the United States. Given these tracking needs, one can better understand the funding and development for the fencing now underway at the border, particularly at Laredo. The numerous cameras and sensors being put in place are mainly serving to militarize life both sides of the border. As well, contrary to the promotion of stopping immigration, they are not so much for stopping people coming in as they are for tracking cargo and keeping this private property of the monopolies secure.

Similarly, to speed up the crossing at Laredo, Texas, as is also being done at Canadian crossings, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America working groups within the U.S. Department of Commerce are acting to allow trucks from all three countries to be equipped with electronic “FAST” technology so the trucks can cross the borders in express lanes.

As former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes put it, development of the Superport is part of “working to improve transportation and trade relations along the North American Mid-Continent Trade Corridor — from Manitoba province in Canada, through the Central U.S., down to the states of Michoacan and Colima in Mexico — encompassing the two largest border crossings in the U.S.: Laredo, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. Kansas City, the major intermodal hub at the heart of the corridor, disperses goods from Canada and Mexico throughout the U.S. and can serve as an alternative trade port as trade growth begins to choke coastal ports and customs facilities in Texas.”

Locating the port in Kansas City is serving in part as a means to bypass the unionized ports of Long Beach (Bay Area) and Los Angeles. Workers at both ports are known for taking their stands against injustice, including participation in May Day actions to defend immigrant rights and the rights of all. The move also facilitates the exploitation of Mexican workers and increases the competition among all port workers.

The peoples welcome trade and relations of all kinds that are characterized by mutual benefit and respect for rights, including the sovereignty of nations. These arrangements of the SPP serve the biggest monopolies and stand against the fraternal unity of the peoples. They have no place in modern societies.

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HRC40, January 2007

House Resolution on Security and Prosperity Partnership

The following resolution is currently in committee in the House of Representatives. It was submitted to both the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It is a concurrent resolution, which means it is presented to both the House and Senate for consideration. It was submitted by, Mr. Goode (for himself, Mr. Wamp, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Paul, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Duncun, and Ms. Foxx). In addition, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) introduced an amendment to H.R. 3074, the Transportation Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2008. The amendment prohibits the use of federal funds for participation in working groups under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), including the creation of a NAFTA Super Highway. It passed the House by a vote of 362 – 63. Below is the resolution still pending in the House.

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Whereas the United States Departments of State, Commerce, and Homeland Security participated in the formation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) on March 23, 2005, representing a tri-lateral agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico designed, among other things, to facilitate common regulatory schemes between these countries;

Whereas reports issued by the SPP indicate that it has implemented regulatory changes among the three countries that circumvent United States trade, transportation, homeland security, and border security functions and that the SPP will continue to do so in the future;

Whereas the actions taken by the SPP to coordinate border security by eliminating obstacles to migration between Mexico and the United States actually makes the United States-Mexico border less secure because Mexico is the primary source country of illegal immigrants into the United States;

Whereas according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly increased since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA and the SPP;

Whereas the regulatory and border security changes implemented and proposed by the SPP violate and threaten United States sovereignty;

Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union to facilitate trade between the SPP countries;

Whereas the State of Texas has already begun planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a major multi-modal transportation project beginning at the United States-Mexico border, which would serve as an initial section of a NAFTA Superhighway System;

Whereas it could be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would likely increase the insurance rates for American drivers;

Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and

Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would likely include funds from foreign consortiums and be controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That

(1) the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

(2) the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

(3) the President of the United States should indicate strong opposition to these acts or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

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USNORTHCOM & NORAD Vision 2020 Plan for Annexation

Integrating Military & Civilian Forces for Use Against the Peoples

In July, the Pentagon’s U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued a plan called “Vision 2020.” It addresses the U.S. push for integrating military and civilian forces of Canada and Mexico under U.S. command, as well as integrating “federal, provincial, state, local and tribal police agencies” under the single “command and control” of USNORTHCOM. Both NORAD and USNORTHCOM are now under a single commander, U.S. Air Force General Gene Renuart.

USNORTHCOM was established in 2002 as the “unified combatant command,” for the U.S, Canada and Mexico (North America). It represents the first time the Pentagon has established a command center for military operations inside the U.S. and a single command for both Canada and Mexico. Indeed, its banner claims ownership and control of all three countries, saying, “Defending Our Homelands.”

NORAD is the longstanding military arrangement enabling the U.S. to put the Canadian military on alert and to use it for U.S. aims. While it is more limited to air and sea defense, it has been an instrument, as Vision 2020 states, to work “in close collaboration with homeland defense, security and law enforcement partners, prevent air attacks against North America,” and “provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America.” While claiming it “safeguards the sovereignty” of both countries, given the U.S. has “command and control,” NORAD has been and remains an instrument to undermine and attack Canadian sovereignty.

Vision 2020 explains that both NORTHCOM and NORAD “operate within a common security environment and share common values.” It emphasizes that “We must constantly challenge ‘the way it is’ in favor of ‘the way it ought to be.’” It also stresses “Unity of effort and unity of results are part of all we do.” It says, “Our charter is clear: we must actively seek and aggressively advocate solutions that best serve collective interests of national and continental defense and security.” Just as the U.S. proclaims U.S.-style democracy the only answer worldwide, Vision 2020 says “We intend to serve as a universal model for collaboration, integrating aerospace and maritime warning, aerospace control and multi-domain homeland defense.”

Vision 2020 openly presents USNORTHCOM as the guardian of U.S. interests alone, although its “area of responsibility” includes all three countries. It says, USNORTHCOM “anticipates and conducts Homeland Defense and Civil Support operations within the assigned area of responsibility to defend, protect and secure the U.S. and its interests.” Showing U.S. plans for a single North American border perimeter, General Renuart said, in releasing Vision 2020, the world “is not a world of borders, but it’s a world of borderless threats, a world of cyber threats, a world of natural disasters on a fairly large scale that can cause substantial damage to our citizens and their property.”

It is USNORTHCOM that sent military forces to New Orleans as part of the government-organized disaster following Katrina. They were well known for being ordered to leave people on the rooftops to die, to fire on civilians, to forcibly remove and separate families, all while protecting the private property of the monopolies. Canadians and Quebecois are now experiencing the U.S. military interference in plans for teach-ins and demonstrations at the August Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting, in Quebec, of President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Harper and Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon. The military dictated that a protest meeting already planned could not take place and that the public community center where it was to be held would instead serve as the command center, with the U.S. military dictating. Plans for actions are going forward despite this U.S. interference and attack on the rights of the peoples.

Integrating Military and Civilian Forces

Vision 2020 is specifically directed toward U.S. efforts to consolidate U.S. “command and control” over Canadian forces, to lessen the divisions that exist within the U.S. military, and to bring civil forces under military control. The military role in Canada to block demonstrations and force provincial and local police forces in Canada and Quebec to do the same is one example of this effort.

Vision 2020 elaborates on the need for USNORTHCOM’s “unique” relations with all forces: “Whether operating in a supported or supporting role, the forces employed for homeland defense or civil support must be able to work with every government, Service, and agency that provides members to serve in homeland and continental defense operations. The unique and wholly necessary relationships we develop and employ with our many established and ad hoc partners will produce trust, enhanced capabilities, mutual advocacy and the culture of collaboration requisite to achieve our missions.” Already, more than 45 different agencies are at USNORTHCOM, sharing information and intelligence and working together daily as a single force.

Thus it can be seen that USNORTHCOM is being used as a means to overcome the many divisions and competing military interests among the different services — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — and overcome the long-standing distrust and rejection of use of the military by civilian forces. To do so, Vision 2020 says, “Our operations will always be “Joint,” will usually involve interagency partners and when appropriate will be “Combined,” [meaning under military command]. We will maintain special focus on the capabilities of our nations’ reserve components — to include the National Guard — and national, provincial, state, local and tribal organizations.” Further, to secure the acceptance among the population of a military presence inside the country, and of spying for that military, Vision 2020 will “reinforce the U.S. government’s efforts to instill a ‘culture of preparedness’ among our citizenry, and encourage our neighbors Canada and Mexico to do the same.” It says messages will be “crafted for public consumption” that will be “positive, honest, reassuring and pro-active — to reinforce public confidence in our Commands’ abilities.”

Vision 2020 concludes by saying “We will continue to lead military efforts to integrate, coordinate and synchronize with partners from all sectors, sources and levels as we advocate the training, equipment and resources necessary to accomplish our collective missions…We will regularly encourage innovative approaches and philosophies for an effective combined defense.”

Given this “vision,” it should come as no surprise that President Bush has been systematically putting in place arrangements for the executive to call forth the military and USNORTHCOM in particular. This includes their use in the event of an “emergency,” declared by him. These emergencies include a “threat” — not the actual existence, but threat, of — “pandemic flu,” “terrorism,” “civil violence and unrest” or natural disasters like hurricanes, fires and floods where the executive decides the civilian forces are “overwhelmed.” Congress has joined Bush by now making it acceptable to use the military for law enforcement inside the country, again, in an “emergency.”

As well, consistent with content here of maintaining “special focus on the capabilities of our nations’ reserve components — to include the National Guard” Bush has also made it possible for the president to federalize the National Guard of all 50 states and to do so without the consent of the Governor, the civilian authority. Various exercises conducted by USNORTHCOM also emphasize that the military commands, and the civilian forces, both police agencies and others like FEMA, follow.

Vision 2020 is not a vision but a nightmare military arrangement for annexation and repression of the peoples. It is being militantly opposed as a dangerous tool of the imperialists. The upcoming demonstrations against the SPP in Quebec, where the peoples of all three countries are taking their stand for their vision of another world that serves humanity, is a vital space for rejecting this militarism and standing for the rights of all.

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Integrating Civilian Forces Under Military Command

USNORTHCOM & FEMA Training Exercise in Texas

As part of USNORTHCOM’s efforts to develop a single integrated force under military command, it regularly conducts joint exercises that include police agencies at the federal, state and local level and various civilian forces from all levels of government and first responders, like firefighters and hospital workers. It is also regularly deployed for “command and control” functions at any event designated a National Security Special Event, such as the Democratic and Republican conventions, the presidential inauguration and state of the union addresses, the G-8 summit, and the upcoming Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting. It is also used at Superbowls to “deter and defeat any possible threats against persons attending,” the game.

As a recent example, in June the Texas Hurricane Exercise was conducted in Austin. It included the testing of federal and state plans for evacuating Galveston and Houston in the event of a hurricane, as well as the military’s testing of its “civil support,” in such an emergency. According to USNORTHCOM’s Colonel Lavern “Bullet” Young who participated in both parts, the Texas exercise was the first time all federal and state partners, including the military, were in one location at one time working off a common timeline. He emphasized that the exercise “Allowed us to do some tremendous relationship building.” A main role of the exercises is to get all the various civilian forces at all levels used to accepting and submitting to the role of the military. As Yong put it, “Relationships between the Department of Defense (DOD), FEMA and the states have improved since 9/11. FEMA is leaning forward now more than ever to provide that presence with the states before a disaster. And when FEMA is called, DOD will not be far behind.”

USNORTHCOM’s joint exercises have also included Canadian armed forces and civilians. One exercise involved a potential flu pandemic, anther had several “incidents of mass destruction” occurring at the same time in more than one location.

The exercise known as TOPOFF2 for Top Officials 2, in 2003 involved USNORTHCOM, the Department of Homeland Defense (DHS) and the State Department in what USNORTHCOM described as “the most comprehensive terrorism response exercise ever undertaken in the U.S.” That same year USNORTHCOM presented the “first Homeland Defense Symposium,” in partnership with the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and Rocky Mountain Chapter National Defense Industrial Association.” The purpose was to promote USNORTHCOM and its mission. The symposium now occurs annually. (USNORTHCOM is based in Colorado Springs.)

In 2004, USNORTHCOM and DHS involved more than 50 federal, state and local organizations in an exercise headed by the military known as Exercise Unified Defense. It was organized simultaneously in Alaska, Colorado, Texas, Virginia and D.C. IN 2005 another TOPOFF, this one number 5, took place nationwide.

In May of 2006, USNORTHCOM organized Exercise Ardent Sentry 06 involving federal, provincial, state and local agencies from Canada and the U.S. According to USNORTHCOM, “The exercise required participants to respond to simulated terrorist activities and manage the consequences of a range of simulated man-made and natural disasters.”

Exercises of this type are organized regularly, including another one in the nation’s capitol that involves NORAD jets flying low across the city day and night over several days.

In addition USNORTHCOM has established a “Homeland Security/Defense Education Consortium, (HSDEC)” This is done together with the University of Colorado, the University of Denver and the Naval Post graduate School. HSDEC is a “network of teaching and research institutions” focused on “supporting the homeland security and defense missions,” of USNORHCOM. About 50 educational institutions are currently at its disposal.

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For Your Information

USNORTHCOM and NORAD

According to its webpage, U.S. Northern Command, USNORTHCOM, “was established Oct. 1, 2002 to provide command and control of Department of Defense (DoD) homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support of civil authorities. USNORTHCOM defends America’s homeland — protecting our people, national power, and freedom of action.” Its specific mission is to “Conduct operations to deter, prevent, and defeat threats and aggression aimed at the United States, its territories and interests.” Under the direction of the president it “provides defense support of civil authorities.” Its area of operation includes “air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico and the surrounding water out to approximately 500 nautical miles. It also includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida.” It is based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) was established May 12, 1958. According to its webpage, it is charged with “the monitoring of man-made objects in space, and the detection, validation, and warning of attack against North America whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles, through mutual support arrangements with other commands. Aerospace control includes ensuring air sovereignty and air defense of the airspace of Canada and the United States.” NORAD also now has “a maritime warning mission, which entails a shared awareness and understanding of the activities conducted in U.S. and Canadian maritime approaches, maritime areas and inland waterways.” Its slogan is “Deter, Detect Defend.” It claims that the sword pointing skyward in its emblem, is not only “the shortest approach of the potential aggressor,” but that “with the advent of the asymmetric terrorist threat, it may also be said that the ‘sharp edges of the sword are prepared to meet any aggressor in our domestic airspace.’”

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Pay Reparations Now for Nuclear Victims

U.S. Must Disarm All Nukes Now!

August 6 and 9 marked the 62 anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the Japanese people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than a quarter of a million people were killed as a result, and many more have suffered from the bombings from generation to generation. We offer our condolences to all those impacted and join the world’s peoples in pledging to organize to block nuclear war and all aggressive wars.

The U.S. then and now is attempting to use its nuclear arsenal to blackmail the world’s people into submission. While it maintains its arsenal — directly defying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — and is building new weapons, it demands that smaller non-nuclear countries like Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea not even pursue civilian use of nuclear energy. It presents others as the threat when this anniversary brings to the fore that it is the U.S. that remains the nuclear threat to the world. It alone has used them and it alone threatens to use them again.

The peoples worldwide are rejecting U.S. blackmail and double standards. Protests worldwide marked the anniversary, condemning U.S. crimes and demanding reparations for all those impacted. These included dozens of actions across the country. The U.S. government was targeted as the nuclear threat and the demand remains, U.S. Disarm Now! No U.S. Nukes! No U.S. Wars!

Reparations for those killed and injured and their families, for the impact on the generations that have followed, as well as for the environment are justly being demanded. These include payment for the crimes of U.S. bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also include reparations for the testing done on the people of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, who were driven from their homes and endured decades of open-air nuclear testing. This testing killed many people and poisoned and destroyed whole islands, making them uninhabitable to this day. An estimated $7 billion in reparations are due. Yet the U.S. has provided only about $140 million.

The refusal of the government to eliminate its nuclear weapons, to meet the demands to get out of Iraq and to act in a pro-social manner that contributes to the well-being of the people here and abroad, makes all the more urgent the necessity for change. As the 2008 elections approach, many people are reaching the conclusion that it is up to the people themselves to run and be elected and to only those candidates who are anti-war.

It is up to the people themselves to organize for an anti-war government. As peoples pay their respects to all the victims of U.S. nuclear weapons and testing, its aggressive wars and repression, and commit themselves to organizing against nuclear war, let all also look toward creating an anti-war government as a vital means to contribute to world peace and security.

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62nd Anniversary of U.S. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Demand No Nukes, No Wars, No Profiteers!

United for Peace and Justice

Twenty-five years after a million people gathered in New York City’s Central Park to demand global nuclear disarmament, an anti-nuclear renaissance is underway. Peace, environmental, faith-based and social justice groups across the country marked the August 6th and 9th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with more than 80 commemorations, rallies, film screenings, and vigils in 25 states (www.august6.org), at nuclear weapons facilities and offices of corporate war profiteers, united under the umbrella, No Nukes! No Wars! No Profiteers!

Sixty-two years after the U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on two densely populated cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, killing more than 200,000 civilians, nuclear weapons remain a cornerstone of U.S. national security policy. Today, the U.S. retains about 10,000 nuclear weapons, is designing new ones, and is pouring billions of dollars into its nuclear weapons complex, while warning Iran that “all options are on the table.” Who is threatening whom?

Throughout August 2007 and beyond, groups across the country are working to expose the escalating threat to the world posed by U.S. nuclear weapons and hypocrisy, and to confront the corporations that are perpetuating and profiting from the wars in the Middle East.

Some of the August actions included:

• The Widening War Tour, featuring Hiroshima survivor Yuko Nakamura, that stops in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Florence, Massachusetts;

• Nonviolent direct actions at the national nuclear weapons laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Lawrence Livermore, California, at the Nevada Test Site; [and at the weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where five people chained themselves to the plant gate and hundreds more blockaded it, demanding U.S. Disarm Now! ];

• The Think Outside the Bomb youth conference in Santa Barbara, California Aug. 16-19 (www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org).

Here is what you can do to prevent future Hiroshimas and Nagasakis throughout August and beyond:

1. Visit August6.org to locate or post events, download action and education resources, and learn more about the nuclear facilities and war profiteers that operate near you.

2. Cast your “vote” for the elimination of nuclear weapons by printing out, filling in and mailing copies of the unofficial ballot to the Department of Energy and public officials.

3. Email your senators to demand that they reject the Bush administration’s plan to build new nuclear weapons.

4. Host the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’s traveling “Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Exhibition.”

5. Organize a video screening or house party.

• The Widening War Tour featuring Hiroshima survivor Yuko Nakamura, which stopped in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Aug. 6 and 7) and Florence, Massachusetts (Aug. 9).

According to Hiroshima A-bomb survivor, Yoku Nakamura: “The atomic bomb brought 140,000 deaths in Hiroshima and 70,000 deaths in Nagasaki 62 years ago. People around the world need to know how a nuclear bomb can brutally destroy a city and take so many lives away, miserably, in a split second, and also should know that nuclear bombs today can bring even more horrifying destruction upon us.” She concluded: “It has been more than half a century since the Hibakusha (Atomic-bomb sufferers) organized themselves and joined forces to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons so that there would be no more Hiroshimas or Nagasakis. For all the rest of my life, I sincerely wish, pray and fight for all the people on earth in this 21st century to be able to live their lives fully with dignity and peace.”

The anti-nuclear renaissance is developing in response to increasing nuclear threats. Jackie Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, and convener of UFPJ’s Nuclear Disarmament Working Group said: “As carried out against Iraq and threatened against Iran, the specter of nuclear weapons in the hands of ‘rogue’ states has become the United States’ number-one excuse for waging war. Yet the threatened first use of nuclear weapons remains the ‘cornerstone’ of U.S. national security policy. The U.S. is violating its NPT nuclear disarmament obligation by retaining some 10,000 nuclear weapons, designing new ones, and pouring billions of dollars into its nuclear weapons manufacturing complex. Meanwhile, leading presidential candidates from both parties are warning Iran that ‘all options are on the table.’ Who is threatening whom?” Cabasso will be taking part in the “In the Shadow of the Nuclear Bomb” August 5 action at the Livermore Lab in California.

UFPJ is also promoting house parties and educational events in connection with the August HBO premiere of Academy Award-winner Steven Okazaki’s powerful new film, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The critically acclaimed documentary features 14 Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors and is a remarkable document of the only times nuclear weapons have been used in war — an act committed by the United States.

Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator for UFPJ, said: “The U.S. government’s nuclear hypocrisy has not led to peace, but has fed perpetual conflict. While Washington takes us to war claiming to be searching for weapons of mass destruction, they are now about to produce a new generation of nuclear weapons.”

“As we commemorate the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said David Meieran, of the Thomas Merton Center’s Demilitarize Pittsburgh project, “we need to stand up to the corporations who profit from nuclear weapons and who drive us to unnecessary wars.” Meieran helped organize Pittsburgh’s events, which included a demonstration with Yoku Nakamura, at a heavily DoD-funded facility at Carnegie Mellon. Meieran also is helping to launch the national Bite the Bullet: War Profiteering Education and Action Network.

According to Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Nuclear Power & Weapons in Space, “The Bush administration lectures the rest of the world about the evils of weapons of mass destruction while at the same time developing new generations of our own. On top of that the Pentagon is now moving toward deployment of offensive weapons in space that will only make the world more unstable. We are the leading arms dealer in the world and its biggest hypocrite. The time has come to convert the military industrial complex to peaceful and sustainable production here at home.” Gagnon was a featured speaker at an August 5th event in New York City.

Other notable speakers at actions around the country included Ann Wright, career Foreign Service officer and Army Reserves colonel who resigned from the State Department in protest over the Iraq war, speaking at a Fayetteville, Arkansas, event on August 5, and human rights leader Father Ray Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch, who spoke in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on August 3.

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Bush Administration’s Latest Plan to Build New Nuclear Weapons

Lawrence S. Wittner, April 9. 2007

The Bush administration’s stubborn determination to prevail, whatever the costs, is evident not only in its reckless military venture in Iraq, but in its single-minded pursuit of new nuclear weapons.

The U.S. government, of course, is supposed to be divesting itself of its nuclear weapons under the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it signed in 1968. As recently as the NPT review conference of 2000, the U.S. government joined other signers of the NPT in promising an “unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.”

Furthermore, when the Bush administration ignored these commitments and pressed Congress hard for funding to build new nuclear weapons — nuclear “bunker busters” and “mini-nukes” — Congress dug in and rejected them as totally unnecessary. With some 10,000 nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal, members of Congress, both Democrats and some Republicans, seemed to feel that enough was enough. However, from the standpoint of the Bush administration, there are never enough nuclear weapons — at least in its arsenal.

And so, administration officials are now back with another U.S. nuclear weapons proposal: to build the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). “They’ve been running with RRW like you wouldn’t believe,” observed U.S. Representative David Hobson (Republican-Ohio). Hobson ought to know for, until this January, he chaired the House subcommittee on water and energy appropriations, which oversees spending on nuclear weapons.

The alleged reason for building this newly-designed hydrogen bomb is to maintain the reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile which, according to administration proponents of the RRW, is deteriorating and needs to be replaced. But independent studies by scientific experts have shown that the stockpile will remain reliable for at least another fifty years.

Not surprisingly, the plan for the Reliable Replacement Warhead has drawn sharp criticism. “This is a solution in search of a problem,” remarked Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “There is an urgent need to reduce these weapons, not expand them.” […]

Even more worrisome is the fact that the Reliable Replacement Warhead is just the tip of the nuclear iceberg. This nuclear weapon is merely a component of a larger Bush administration plan to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Called Complex 2030 (and dubbed by disarmament groups like Peace Action “Bombplex 2030”), it calls for a massive reorganization and refurbishment of the nation’s nuclear weapons program. According to Thomas D’Agostino, the deputy administrator for programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration and a keen supporter of the proposal, Complex 2030 will “restore us to a level of capability comparable to what we had during the Cold War.”

Like the Iraq War, this will be a very expensive program. The Bush administration claims that Complex 2030 will cost roughly $150 billion. But the Government Accountability Office considers this estimate far too low and has urged Congress to require that the Department of Energy provide an accurate accounting of the real costs.

Arms control and disarmament groups are horrified by Complex 2030. Susan Gordon, director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, has remarked: “At a time when the Non-Proliferation Treaty is in danger of unraveling, it is madness to be planning to rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons program with new warheads and new military missions.”

How warmly Congress will welcome the Bush administration’s plan to upgrade and expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal is anyone’s guess, but the odds are that it will receive a chilly reception—and not only from Democrats.

In addition, the plan will certainly be seized upon by the government of Iran. Currently assailed by the Bush administration for allegedly building nuclear weapons and, thus, violating the NPT, it merely has to point to the RRW and Complex 2030 to reveal the administration’s hypocrisy.

Indeed, if the Bush administration were really serious about blocking nuclear proliferation — rather than enhancing its own nuclear weapons supremacy — it would scrupulously abide by the provisions of the NPT.

Dr. Wittner is Professor of History at SUNYAlbany. His latest book is Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1971 to the Present .

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Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2007

Aim for a Nuclear Weapon-Free World

Mainichi Daily News

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba gave the city’s 2007 Peace Declaration early Monday morning, the 62nd anniversary of the world’s first nuclear attack. An English translation of Akiba’s declaration is reproduced in full below:

That fateful summer, 8:15am. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast — silence — hell on Earth.

The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies — Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.

Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.

But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.

And yet, the message born of that agony is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. To ensure that “no one else ever suffers as we did,” the hibakusha have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.

Despite their best efforts, vast arsenals of nuclear weapons remain in high states of readiness — deployed or easily available. Proliferation is gaining momentum, and the human family still faces the peril of extinction. This is because a handful of old-fashioned leaders, clinging to an early 20th century worldview in thrall to the rule of brute strength, are rejecting global democracy, turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings and the message of the hibakusha.

However, here in the 21st century the time has come when these problems can actually be solved through the power of the people. Former colonies have become independent. Democratic governments have taken root. Learning the lessons of history, people have created international rules prohibiting attacks on non-combatants and the use of inhumane weapons. They have worked hard to make the United Nations an instrument for the resolution of international disputes. And now city governments, entities that have always walked with and shared in the tragedy and pain of their citizens, are rising up. In the light of human wisdom, they are leveraging the voices of their citizens to lift international politics.

Because “Cities suffer most from war,” Mayors for Peace, with 1,698 city members around the world, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.

In Hiroshima, we are continuing our effort to communicate the A-bomb experience by holding A-bomb exhibitions in 101 cities in the US and facilitating establishment of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses in universities around the world. American mayors have taken the lead in our Cities Are Not Targets project. Mayors in the Czech Republic are opposing the deployment of a missile defense system. The mayor of Guernica-Lumo is calling for a resurgence of morality in international politics. The mayor of Ypres is providing an international secretariat for Mayors for Peace, while other Belgian mayors are contributing funds, and many more mayors around the world are working with their citizens on pioneering initiatives. In October this year, at the World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of our planet’s population, cities will express the will of humanity as we call for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The government of Japan, the world’s only A-bombed nation, is duty-bound to humbly learn the philosophy of the hibakusha along with the facts of the atomic bombings and to spread this knowledge through the world. At the same time, to abide by international law and fulfill its good-faith obligation to press for nuclear weapons abolition, the Japanese government should take pride in and protect, as is, the Peace Constitution, while clearly saying “No,” to obsolete and mistaken U.S. policies. We further demand, on behalf of the hibakusha whose average age now exceeds 74, improved and appropriate assistance, to be extended also to those living overseas or exposed in “black rain areas.”

Sixty-two years after the atomic bombing, we offer today our heartfelt prayers for the peaceful repose of all its victims and of Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki shot down on his way toward nuclear weapons abolition. Let us pledge here and now to take all actions required to bequeath to future generations a nuclear-weapon-free world.

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Sign the Marshall Island Petition for Justice

Mayaguezanos con Vieques, Puerto Rico

The Marshall Islands were a colony of the U.S., just like Puerto Rico is today. The U.S. “tested” atomic bombs on the Marshall Islands, just like they “tested” depleted uranium in Vieques — you can imagine how even today her people suffer. Please sign the petition at:

During our struggle to get the U.S. Navy to stop bombing our island municipality of Vieques, people from all over the world gave us their solidarity. A Land is Life Conference took place in Vieques. People from Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Guam, New Mexico and the Philippines came to share their experiences and show solidarity for our struggle. The U.S. no longer bombs Vieques. But it has left its toxic wastes there to continue contaminating the land. Its clean up operations are not careful of the islands eco system nor do they use the best technology available to minimize the contamination.

The people of the Marshall Islands are the victims of 67 atomic bombs which were “tested” there by the U.S. Government. The “testing” took place while the Marshall Islands were a UN Trustee Territory under the “protection” of the U.S. The survivors of the four principal atolls affected have formed an organization, ERUB which contains the first letter of each of the atolls names (Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik, Bikini). In Marshallese it means broken. Please help us by showing your solidarity and signing the petition demanding justice for our sisters and brothers of the Marshall Islands.

Below you will find a letter from a Hawaiian brother also asking for your solidarity. It contains a link to the Marshallese petition.

From the Caribbean to the Pacific, one end of our Mother Earth to the other, we ask you to join us and sign this petition. It is time our Marshallese brothers and sisters received justice.

* * *

Aloha,

Please sign the petition demanding justice for the Marshallese nuclear survivors, many of whom are sick and unable to get adequate medical treatment and monetary compensation that the U.S. promised them because the US refuses to increase the allocation for compensation.

I was on a delegation to Majuro to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Bravo nuclear blast, the most powerful nuclear explosion ever. The blast destroyed entire islands, displaced whole peoples, and has caused a multigenerational health catastrophe. The survivors are organizing to push the U.S. and the Marshall Islands government for justice. They need more pressure on the U.S. government to accept the petition for additional funds to be added to the trust fund that pays out nuclear claims. [The government allocated $140 million for $7 billion in claims]. It is a bandaid, but the least the U.S. can do for the genocidal policies the US conducted in the Marshall Islands.

This is very urgent as many of the survivors are dying prematurely due to their nuclear illnesses, and as many newborns are inheriting diseases. If you would like to sign the petition electronically, please visit this website: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/527291025

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Justice for Nuclear Survivors

Bravo H-bomb Anniversary, March 1, 2007

Abnono - (Petition)
To the American People:
To the U.S. Congress:
To the Ambassador of The United States Of America:

We ask the American people to educate yourselves on the injustices that we Marshallese suffered as a result of 67 atomic and nuclear tests! Kemij kajitok bwe dri Amerka ren katakin ir make kin bwid im entan ko rar walok nan kim jen 67 Nuclear test ko!

We ask the U.S. Congress to reconsider passing the Changed Circumstances Petition (CCP) that our Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) government submitted to you in Sept. 2000!

Kimij kajitok iben US Congress bwe en bar etale im kale CCP en im kien in an RMI ear lelok nane ilo Sept. 2000!

We ask Ambassador Clyde Bishop to advise the Administration of the United States of America to change your position on the CCP!

Kemij kajitok iben Ambassador Clyde Bishop bwe en kokabiloklok lok

Administration en an Amerka bwe en ukot an lomnak ikjen CCP en!

I support this Petition by the Marshall Islands Survivors of 67 U.S. atomic and nuclear tests.

Sign here:

Please return signed PETITION to: Ms. Elma Coleman, P.O. Box 241015, Honolulu, Hawaii 96824

Each PETITION will be sent to your elected official, and to the Chairmen of the following committees: 1) Energy and Natural Resources Committee, 2) the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 3) the

House Resources Committee and 4) to the International Relations Subcommittee

on Asia and the Pacific and the Global Environment.

For further information please contact:

Ms. Elma Coleman,1-808-422-4690(h),1-808-224- 6402 (c);

Lmacoleman@hotmail.com

Ms. Julia Estrella,1-808-941-0317(h),1-808-497-3016 (c); tristar@hula.net

Ronald Fujiyoshi,1-808-959-9775(h),1-808-345-9688 (c); Ronsan2224@aol.com

What is the RMI Changed Circumstances Petition (CCP)

During the negotiating of the Compact of Free Association in 1986, between the U.S. Government and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Government, the full extent of personal injury and property damages sustained by the U.S. nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands was not fully known. Negotiators agreed to include a changed circumstances provision in the Compact that would allow the RMI government to petition the U.S. Congress for additional assistance if new and additional information about the U.S. testing program became known, and if this information was not and could not have been known during the negotiations of the Compact.

Since the Compact came into effect in 1986, there has been new and additional information about the personal injury and property damages resulting from the U.S. nuclear weapons testing program that was not known by the negotiators of the Compact. The new information comes from U.S. government documents declassified by the Clinton Administration as part of its Openness Initiative that began in 1993, and from changes in scientific understanding about the health and radiation exposure.

The RMI Government in September 2000, submitted the Changed Circumstances Petition that requests Congress to: 1) Authorize and appropriate $26.9 million so that the Claims Tribunal can complete full payment of the personal injury awards made as of August 15, 2000; 2) Authorize and appropriate $386 million to satisfy the Claims Tribunal award to the Enewetak people; 3) Authorize and appropriate $50 million in initial capital costs to build and supply the infrastructure necessary to provide adequate primary and secondary medical care to the populations exposed to radiation from the U.S. Weapons Testing Program; 4) Authorize and appropriate $45 million each year for 50 years for a Health Care Program to provide health care for those individuals recognized by the U.S. as having been exposed to high levels of radiation during or after the testing program, including those who were downwind for one or more test, and the awardees of personal injury claims from the Tribunal; 5) Extend the U.S. Department of Energy medical monitoring program for exposed populations to any group that can demonstrate high levels of radiation exposure to the U.S. Congress.

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Nuclear Claims Tribunal Calls for $1 Billion in Reparations

U.S. Military Still Occupies Marshall Islands

www.yokwe.com

On May 20 (21 Pacific Time), 1956, Major David Crichlow, in a B-52 Stratofortress bomber named Barbara Grace dropped the first airborne hydrogen bomb. The aircraft was flying at an altitude of 50,000 feet over Namu Island, Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The bomb exploded with a force estimated as equal to a minimum of 15 million tons of dynamite making it bigger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Strung-Along Bikini: The irony is not lost on Bikinians. They see how much money is spent in Iraq each week, while the government refuses to pay for the damage done to the Bikini Atoll. The Bikinians were resettled multiple times over the next fifteen years, but each new site was deadly and unable to produce enough food. One new site was populated by inedible and poisonous fish, while others lacked a lagoon for fishing. None of the sites was spacious enough to provide sufficient coconut or banana. In 1968, they were allowed to return home after President Lyndon Johnson declared it safe and ordered its immediate resettlement. By 1978, the residents were once again forced to leave when it was discovered that the island was still contaminated. The residents’ radiation body burdens increased eleven-fold in less than ten years and were far above the maximum U.S. levels.

The people of the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) have given up their land, and in some cases their people, so that the U.S. could test their nuclear weapons during the Cold War. All Marshall Islanders were forced to evacuate their homes, and not only stripped of their property and way of life but also upon return exposed to deadly and persistent levels of harmful radioactive toxins, in the air, water, land. The harmful impact of the testing has persisted from generation to generation among the people, including high levels of cancer and birth defects.

Continued U.S. Military Occupation

The Marshall Islands are made up of thousands of small islands that amount to only 77 square miles of land in an area the size of Mexico. They remain one of the most important parts of the U.S. defense network against nuclear missiles. The U.S. secured full military rights in the Marshalls under the Compact of Free Association, a bilateral agreement that established the Marshall Islands as a “sovereign” state in “free association” with the U.S.

The missile range on Kwajalein Atoll is host to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, a major range and test site. The U.S. currently has a missile range on Kwajalein; the RMI votes with the U.S. all the time in the UN regardless of the issue; citizens of the RMI serve in the US armed forces. [According to Lieutenant General Kevin T. Campbell, who heads the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), the U.S. military has “a rather unique relationship in which SMDC interacts on an almost daily basis with the RMI Government.”]

Nuclear Claims Tribunal

In April, 2007, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded residents of one of the atolls in the Marshall Islands $1 billion in compensation for a variety of damages related to nuclear testing. Barbara Rose Johnston, an anthropologist has worked with the tribunal since 1999, said, “We’ve learned a lot in the worst of ways and it is just being ignored, or worse yet, you see the mistakes of the past that are being repeated.”

The claims tribunal, which previously made awards to people of Enewetak and the Bikini Islands, has exhausted the $140 million compensation fund that the U.S. provided, along with a grant of free association, to settle $7 billion in claims during the administration of Ronald Reagan. But a provision in the compact allows the Marshall Islanders to appeal to Congress if conditions change or new information comes to light. They have issued this appeal, including a petition by the RMI government, demanding more funds.

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Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal

nuclearclaimstribunal.com

During the period from June 30, 1946, to August 18, 1958, the United States conducted 67 atmospheric nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, 43 at Enewetak Atoll, 23 at Bikini Atoll, and one approximately 85 miles from Enewetak. The most powerful of those tests was the “Bravo” shot, a 15 megaton device detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini atoll. That test alone was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

While the Bravo test is well known, it should be acknowledged that 17 other tests in the Marshall Islands were in the megaton range and the total yield of the 67 tests was 108 megatons, the equivalent of more than 7,000 Hiroshima bombs. For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that from 1945 to 1988, the U.S. conducted a total of 930 known nuclear tests with a combined yield estimated to be 174 megatons. Approximately 137 megatons of that total was detonated in the atmosphere. In other words, while the number of tests conducted in the Marshall Islands represents only about 14% of all U.S. tests, the yield of the tests in the Marshalls comprised nearly 80% of the atmospheric total detonated by the U.S.

In June 1983, a formal Agreement Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Marshall Islands for the Implementation of Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association was entered into. In that agreement, the U.S. accepted the responsibility for compensation owing to citizens of the Marshall Islands for loss or damage to property and person resulting from that testing.

Under the 177 Agreement, the United States provided to the Marshall Islands the sum of $150 million as a financial settlement for the damages caused by the nuclear testing program. That money was used to create a fund intended to generate $270 million for distribution over a 15 year period with average annual proceeds of approximately $18 million per year through the year 2001. These funds were distributed among the peoples of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik, for medical and radiological monitoring, and the payment of claims.

The 177 Agreement also provided for the establishment of a Claims Tribunal with jurisdiction to “render final determination upon all claims past, present and future, of the Government, citizens and nationals of the Marshall Islands which are based on, arise out of, or are in any way related to the Nuclear Testing Program.”

The Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal was established in 1988. In 1991, the Tribunal first implemented a compensation program for personal injuries deemed to have resulted from the nuclear testing program. By the end of 2003, the Tribunal had awarded more than $83 million in compensation for such injuries with additional compensable claims being filed on a regular basis. In addition, the Tribunal has awarded over $1 billion in property damage awards in the class actions of the people of Enewetak Atoll and the people of Bikini Atoll. The pending property claims from the peoples of Rongelap and Utrik Atolls near completion, while the people of Ailuk Atoll have recently filed a class action claim for compensation.

With only $45.75 million made available for actual payment of awards made by the Tribunal during the first fifteen years of the Compact and less than $6 million of the initial $150 million now remaining in the Nuclear Claims Fund, it has become clear that the original terms of the settlement agreement are manifestly inadequate.

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Pay Reparations Now for Crime of Nuclear Contamination and Deaths

US Court Dismisses Lawsuit Brought by People of Bikini Atoll

A Federal Claims Court judge has granted the U.S. motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the people of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The lawsuit, filed in April 2006, with an amended complaint on July 18, demanded reparations from the government, saying the U.S. had failed in its duty to provide just and adequate compensation for the taking of their lands and nuclear tests and the massive damage caused to the islands and her people.

Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller dismissed the case on the grounds that it “interfered in the conduct of foreign policy,” by the executive. She said any dissatisfaction with the paltry sum the U.S. has so far provided should be “directed to the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, not that of the United States.”

Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and RMI, enacted in 1986, granted $150 million as part of a “full and final settlement” of legal claims against the U.S. government, and provided for possible additional compensation, under changed circumstances or if the provisions of the Compact “manifestly inadequate.” The RMI Government submitted a Changed Circumstances Petition in 2000 requesting additional compensation, which was rejected by the Bush administration in 2005. Congress has also refused to act.

Bikinians were first removed from their home atoll on March 7, 1946, while the Marshall Islands was a U.S. Trust Territory of the United Nations. From 1946-1958, the U.S. conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The people of Bikini still live in exile today due to the contamination of their atoll. They along with all the people of the Marshall Islands continue to fight for the reparations owed them by the U.S. government.

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