[LAAMN] Sunday May 26: Environmental Justice: Local Global Solidarity
On Sunday, May 26th, from 2:30 to 6pm, at the Westside Peace Center. 3916 Sepulveda Blvd, 90230, L.A Peace Freedom Party will host a public forum on the growing grassroots movement for Climate Justice. Barbara Holland Lotte, of the Labor Community Strategy Center will speak on local solutions, and Nancy Lawrence will share her experiences meeting with activists in Brazil who target global capitalism as the major culprit in environmental crimes. We will discuss socialist perspectives and actions on this important issue. The event is free, donations are encouraged. Sunday, May 26th 2:30 pm -6:00 Westside Peace Center 3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, 90230 (1 Block South of Venice Blvd) (see attached flyer) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Cuban Five Leader Criticizes Agents who Cooperated with US Gov.
Cuban Five Leader Criticizes Agents who Cooperated with US Gov.May 13, 2013 | | *By Café Fuerte http://www.cafefuerte.com/*** [image: Rene Gonzalez shows the paper verifies his renouncing of US citizenship. Photo: cafefuerte]http://www.havanatimes.org/?attachment_id=93010 Rene Gonzalez shows the paper verifies his renouncing of US citizenship. Photo: cafefuerte HAVANA TIMES Cuban agent Gerardo Hernandez, currently serving two life sentences on charges of conducting espionage in the United States, has leveled strong criticisms at members of the Avispa Network (Red Avispa) who cooperated with US federal authorities in order to reduce their sentences. In an enthusiastic message of support for agentRene Gonzalezhttp://www.havanatimes.org/?p=92901, who renounced US citizenship to be able to remain in Cuba, Hernandez referred to those members of the spy network who rushed to cooperate with the US government in exchange for a pardon and a new life. He [Rene] could well have resorted to the same pretexts used by those who rushed to declare themselves guilty and cooperate with the authorities, Hernandez stated in a message sent out from the Victorville Federal Prison in California, published by Cubas *Granma* newspaper on Friday. Hernandez commented that Gonzalez would now become a new standard-bearer in the struggle to secure the release of the four agents who continue to serve long prison sentences in the United States. This past Friday, Gonzalez announced that the US State Department had accepted his renouncement of U.S. citizenship, showing journalists the official rescission during a press conference in Havana. Gonzalez had made the official request at the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) on Monday. Now, I am simply a Cuban citizen, a Cuban patriot, Gonzalez declared before journalists, convened at Havanas International Press Center. On May 23, Gonzalez must submit a report about his current legal situation and a certified copy of the document formalizing the loss of his citizenship before a Miami court. This will officially close the case and allow him to remain to Cuba definitively. The leader of the Avispa Network, dismantled on September of 1998, recalled that, after years away from his family, Rene Gonzalez had finally been permitted to reunite with his wife and daughter in the United States, only four months after the birth of their second daughter, when he was arrested by the FBI. *Without the Slightest Hesitation* What was the right thing to do? Stick to ones principles, leave the three to fend for themselves in a foreign country, and face many long years of separation again, or negotiate, give the authorities what they wanted in exchange for a pardon and a new life? There was never even a glimmer of doubt in his mind, and he acted as he should, without the slightest hesitation, Hernandez affirmed. Hernandez, implicated in the conspiracy to down two small planes deployed by the organization Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate) in 1996, was of the opinión that Gonalez served every day of his sentence with dignity, and walked out with his head as high as when he arrived in prison. Gonzalez was released from prison in October of 2011 after serving a 15-year sentence, but was forced to remain on parole in Miami owing to his status as a US citizen. A federal judge, who had given Gonzalez authorization to travel to Cuba in order to attend his fathers funeral, accepted his petition to be able to remain in Cuba, on the condition that he renounce his US citizenship. It is estimated that the Avispa Network which operated in south Florida was made up of at least 25 agents. Of the 14 captured, 7 decided to cooperate with U.S. authorities. Salanueva and Juan Emilio Aboy, members of the network, were deported to Cuba, and least six others managed to evade the FBI crackdown. *Seven Non-Heroes* Cubas propaganda campaigns repeatedly invoke the Five Heroes (the Cuban Five http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=5450) imprisoned in the United States. A cloak of secrecy, however, has been spread over the identity of the seven non-heroes whose sentences were reduced and are currently in witness protection programs in the United States. Hernadez comments regarding the group of collaborators is one of extremely few references to this issue made by Cubas official media. The case of former agent Edgerton Levy and his wife, double agents who, as of 1995, proved key figures in the identification and monitoring of the network by the FBI, is also passed over in silence. Hernandez message, dated May 3, made no mention of the number or the names of the networks non-heroes. Hernandez celebrated Gonzalez decision to remain in Cuba and stated that he and the other three imprisoned agents feel slightly freer. Today, all of the Cuban Five feel slightly freer. A part of us walks down the streets of that island, and we can almost breath in its air, feel the warmth of its sun on our skin,
[LAAMN] History lessons the West refuses to learn: ominous similarities between Syria and Iraq
Ominous Similarities Between Syria and Iraq History Lessons the West Refuses to Learn by PATRICK COCKBURN In the aftermath of the First World War, Britain and France famously created the modern Middle East by carving up what had been the Ottoman Empire. The borders of new states such as Iraq and Syria were determined in keeping with British and French needs and interests. The wishes of local inhabitants were largely ignored. Now, for the first time in over 90 years, the whole postwar settlement in the region is coming unstuck. External frontiers are no longer the impassable barriers they were until recently, while internal dividing lines are becoming as complicated to cross as international frontiers. In Syria, the government no longer controls many crossing points into Turkey and Iraq. Syrian rebels advance and retreat without hindrance across their country’s international borders, while Shia and Sunni fighters from Lebanon increasingly fight on opposing sides in Syria. The Israelis bomb Syria at will. Of course, the movements of guerrilla bands in the midst of a civil war do not necessarily mean that the state is finally disintegrating. But the permeability of its borders suggests that whoever comes out as the winner of the Syrian civil war will rule a weak state scarcely capable of defending itself. The same process is at work in Iraq. The so-called trigger line dividing Kurdish-controlled territory in the north from the rest of Iraq is more and more like a frontier defended on both sides by armed force. Baghdad infuriated the Kurds last year by setting up the Dijla (Tigris) Operations Command, which threatened to enforce central military control over areas disputed between Kurds and Arabs. Dividing lines got more complicated in Iraq after the Hawaijah massacre on 23 April left at least 44 Sunni Arab protesters dead. This came after four months of massive but peaceful Sunni protests against discrimination and persecution. The result of this ever-deeper rift between the Sunni and the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad is that Iraqi troops in Sunni-majority areas behave like an occupation army. At night, they abandon isolated outposts so they can concentrate forces in defensible positions. Iraqi government control in the northern half of the country is becoming ever more tenuous. Does it really matter to the rest of the world who fights whom in the impoverished country towns of the Syrian interior or in the plains and mountains of Kurdistan? The lesson of the last few thousand years is that it matters a great deal. The region between Syria’s Mediterranean coast and the western frontier of Iran has traditionally been a zone where empires collide. Maps of the area are littered with the names of battlefields where Romans fought against Parthians, Ottomans against Safavids, and British against Turks. It is interesting but chilling to see the carelessness with which the British and French divided up this area under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. The British were to control the provinces of Baghdad and Basra and have influence further north. The French were to hold south-east Turkey and northern Syria and the province of Mosul, believed to contain oil. It turned out, however, that British generosity over Mosul was due to Britain having promised eastern Turkey to Tsarist Russia and thinking it would be useful to have a French cordon sanitaire between themselves and the Russian army. Sykes-Picot reflected wartime priorities and was never implemented as such. The British promise to give Mosul to France became void with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the Bolsheviks’ unsporting publication of Russia’s secret agreements with its former French and British allies. But in negotiations in 1918-19 leading up to the Treaty of Versailles, only the most perfunctory attention was given to the long-term effect of the distribution of the spoils. Discussing Mesopotamia and Palestine with David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, who was not very interested in the Middle East, said: “Tell me what you want.” Lloyd George: “I want Mosul.” Clemenceau: “You shall have it. Anything else?” Lloyd George: “Yes, I want Jerusalem too.” Clemenceau agreed with alacrity to this as well, though he warned there might be trouble over Mosul, which even then was suspected to contain oil. Those negotiations have a fascination because so many of the issues supposedly settled then are still in dispute. Worse, agreements reached then laid the basis for so many future disputes and wars that still continue, or are yet to come. Arguments made at that time are still being made. Not surprisingly, the leaders of the 30 million Kurds are the most jubilant at the discrediting of agreements of which they, along with the Palestinians, were to be the greatest victims. After being divided between Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, they sense their moment has finally
Re: [LAAMN] History lessons the West refuses to learn: ominous similarities between Syria and Iraq
Follow the money, those who do not want any change from past practices are those that always profit from these disasters. Well they are disasters in our eyes, they are simply profitable opportunities in their eyes. None of them have ever cared a whit about people unless it is their inner circle. Now take a look at who funds out political system. Duh, one in the same. SO this is why we have those managements systems, we have allowed those who finance our political system, those who are persistent, take over while we relax between sElections. Scott Ominous Similarities Between Syria and Iraq History Lessons the West Refuses to Learn by PATRICK COCKBURN In the aftermath of the First World War, Britain and France famously created the modern Middle East by carving up what had been the Ottoman Empire. The borders of new states such as Iraq and Syria were determined in keeping with British and French needs and interests. The wishes of local inhabitants were largely ignored. Now, for the first time in over 90 years, the whole postwar settlement in the region is coming unstuck. External frontiers are no longer the impassable barriers they were until recently, while internal dividing lines are becoming as complicated to cross as international frontiers. In Syria, the government no longer controls many crossing points into Turkey and Iraq. Syrian rebels advance and retreat without hindrance across their countryâs international borders, while Shia and Sunni fighters from Lebanon increasingly fight on opposing sides in Syria. The Israelis bomb Syria at will. Of course, the movements of guerrilla bands in the midst of a civil war do not necessarily mean that the state is finally disintegrating. But the permeability of its borders suggests that whoever comes out as the winner of the Syrian civil war will rule a weak state scarcely capable of defending itself. The same process is at work in Iraq. The so-called trigger line dividing Kurdish-controlled territory in the north from the rest of Iraq is more and more like a frontier defended on both sides by armed force. Baghdad infuriated the Kurds last year by setting up the Dijla (Tigris) Operations Command, which threatened to enforce central military control over areas disputed between Kurds and Arabs. Dividing lines got more complicated in Iraq after the Hawaijah massacre on 23 April left at least 44 Sunni Arab protesters dead. This came after four months of massive but peaceful Sunni protests against discrimination and persecution. The result of this ever-deeper rift between the Sunni and the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad is that Iraqi troops in Sunni-majority areas behave like an occupation army. At night, they abandon isolated outposts so they can concentrate forces in defensible positions. Iraqi government control in the northern half of the country is becoming ever more tenuous. Does it really matter to the rest of the world who fights whom in the impoverished country towns of the Syrian interior or in the plains and mountains of Kurdistan? The lesson of the last few thousand years is that it matters a great deal. The region between Syriaâs Mediterranean coast and the western frontier of Iran has traditionally been a zone where empires collide. Maps of the area are littered with the names of battlefields where Romans fought against Parthians, Ottomans against Safavids, and British against Turks. It is interesting but chilling to see the carelessness with which the British and French divided up this area under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. The British were to control the provinces of Baghdad and Basra and have influence further north. The French were to hold south-east Turkey and northern Syria and the province of Mosul, believed to contain oil. It turned out, however, that British generosity over Mosul was due to Britain having promised eastern Turkey to Tsarist Russia and thinking it would be useful to have a French cordon sanitaire between themselves and the Russian army. Sykes-Picot reflected wartime priorities and was never implemented as such. The British promise to give Mosul to France became void with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the Bolsheviksâ unsporting publication of Russiaâs secret agreements with its former French and British allies. But in negotiations in 1918-19 leading up to the Treaty of Versailles, only the most perfunctory attention was given to the long-term effect of the distribution of the spoils. Discussing Mesopotamia and Palestine with David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, who was not very interested in the Middle East, said: âTell me what you want.â Lloyd George: âI want Mosul.â Clemenceau: âYou shall have it. Anything else?â Lloyd George: âYes, I want Jerusalem too.â Clemenceau agreed with alacrity to this as well, though he warned there might be trouble over Mosul, which even then was suspected
[LAAMN] Gitmo: Where death is preferable to life
The Intolerable Conditions Inside Obama's Guantanamo Gitmo: Where Death is Preferable to Life by MARJORIE COHN More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. “They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,” Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime. “The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,” Wingard added. The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that force-feeding amounts to torture. The American Medical Association says that force-feeding violates medical ethics. “Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life-sustaining interventions,” AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Yet President Barack Obama continues the tortuous Bush policy of force-feeding hunger strikers. Although a few days after his first inauguration, Obama promised to shutter Guantanamo, it remains open. “I continue to believe that we’ve got to close Guantanamo,” Obama declared in his April 30 press conference. But, he added, “Congress determined that they would not let us close it.” Obama signed a bill that Congress passed which erected barriers to closure. According to a Los Angeles Times editorial, “Obama has refused to expend political capital on closing Guantanamo. Rather than veto the defense authorization bills that have limited his ability to transfer inmates, he has signed them while raising questions about whether they intruded on his constitutional authority.” “I don’t want these individuals to die,” Obama told reporters. In fact, Obama has the power to save the hunger strikers’ lives without torturing them. Eighty-six – more than half – of the detainees remaining at Guantanamo have been cleared for release for the past three years. Section 1028(d) of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act empowers the Secretary of Defense to approve transfers of detainees when it is in the national security interest of the United States. Fifty-six of the 86 cleared detainees are from Yemen. Yet Obama imposed a ban on releasing any of them following the foiled 2009 Christmas bomb plot by a Nigerian man who was recruited in Yemen. Obama must begin signing these certifications and waivers at once. Indeed, Obama said in his press conference, “I think – well, you know, I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe . . . It hurts us in terms of our international standing . . . It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed.” In addition, Obama’s March 7, 2011 Executive Order 13567 provides for additional administrative review of detainees’ cases. The Periodic Review Board (PRB) would provide an opportunity for a detainee to challenge his continued detention. Yet Obama has delayed by more than a year PRB hearings at which other detainees could be cleared for release. Despite a requirement that the PRB begin review within one year, no PRB has yet been created. Obama should appoint an official to oversee the closure of Guantanamo and commence periodic reviews immediately so that detainees can challenge their designations and additional detainees can be approved for transfer. Moreover, as suggested by Lt. Col. David Frakt, who represented Guantanamo detainees before the military commissions and in federal habeas corpus proceedings, Obama should direct the attorney general to inform the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Department of Justice no longer considers the cleared detainees to be detainable. Obama has blocked the release of eight cleared detainees by opposing their habeas corpus petitions. “[W]hen the Obama administration really wants to transfer a detainee, they are quite capable of doing so,” Frakt wrote in JURIST. The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment, which includes two former senior U.S. generals, and a Republican former congressman and lawyer, Asa Hutchinson, issued a report that concluded the treatment and indefinite detention of the Guantanamo detainees is “abhorrent and intolerable.” It called for the closure of the prison camp by next year. Twenty-five former Guantanamo detainees issued a statement recommending that the American medical profession stop its complicity with abuse force-feeding techniques; conditions on confinement for detainees be improved immediately; all detainees who have not been charged be released; and the military commissions process be ended and all those be charged tried in line with the Geneva Conventions. The
[LAAMN] #YaBastaDelChantajeDePolar - Venezuelan Peasants Relaunch the “War on Latifundio” in Lara State
1. #*YaBastaDelChantajeDePolar*https://twitter.com/search?q=%23YaBastaDelChantajeDePolarsrc=hash 2. [image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @*HOVcampaign*https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign 4h https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/333916291675082752 increasing anger at role played by POLAR food monopoly in scarcity, hoarding and speculation against revolution #*YaBastaDelChantajeDePolar*https://twitter.com/search?q=%23YaBastaDelChantajeDePolarsrc=hash *Expand* https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/333916291675082752 3. [image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @*HOVcampaign*https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign in Venezuela #*TwoThingsThatDontMixWell*https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TwoThingsThatDontMixWellsrc=hashare private companies producing for profit and guaranteeing everyone access to basic food products *Expand* https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/333915627263762433 4. [image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @*HOVcampaign*https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign 1,200 kg of rice seized, former police director arrested in Zulia in operation against food smuggling http://aporrea.org/contraloria/n2 28679.html http://t.co/BrRXeX7DhQ *Expand* https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/333906178830659584 5. [image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @*HOVcampaign*https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign Sucre state trade union organisations demand jail sentences for those guilty of hoarding speculation http://aporrea.org/contraloria/n2 28715.html http://t.co/yVerrbglB9 via @*aporrea*https://twitter.com/aporrea *Expand* https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/333905802324758530 6. [image: Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela* @*HOVcampaign*https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign 5th anniversary SIDOR renationalisation by Chavez in response to workers' struggle http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/chavez_renatio nalises_sidor.htm http://t.co/dEVuBMiH9E pic.twitter.com/SqETgOC6Z5http://t.co/SqETgOC6Z5 Venezuelan Peasants Relaunch the War on Latifundio in Lara State May 12th 2013, by Chris Carlson [image: quot;War on the large landholders - Revolutionary Current Bolivar and Zamoraquot; (Chris Carlson/ Venezuelanalysis.com)] War on the large landholders - Revolutionary Current Bolivar and Zamora (Chris Carlson/ Venezuelanalysis.com) Punto Fijo, May 12th, 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) Landless peasants from the western state of Lara announced they were relaunching the war on latifundio last week when hundreds of them invaded and occupied a large estate belonging to the local elite. The estate is known as *Hacienda La Horqueta*, and belongs to the Tamayo Sigala family, one of the wealthiest families in the state of Lara. The peasants who organized the occupation are from a local peasant movement, as well as a local communal council that have been demanding for several years that the state institutions expropriate and redistribute the lands. The peasant groups claim the lands are unproductive, and have made several requests to the National Lands Institute (INTI) to intervene, but have yet to receive a response. According to the peasants, the delay is due to interference from local Chavista mayor Luis Plaza who is attempting to purchase the lands for himself in order to annex them to his farm that is adjacent to the*Hacienda La Horqueta*. Below we have translated the full statement released on Friday from the peasant movement: *The fight for these lands has brought with it the assassination attempt against one of our members three months ago, and the brutal repression of 9 peasants who were imprisoned by the National Guard that was sent by the Chavista mayor of Quibor. PSUV Mayor Luis Plaza is trying to use his position of power to take over this land and expand his agro-industry from the surrounding lands.* *In this situation it was the solidarity and popular movements that made then Minister of Agriculture Juan Carlos Loyo intervene to get our members released from prison and to commit to redistributing this land in the weeks that followed. With that goal, a commission travelled to Caracas and was received by INTI officials, and the Vice-Minister of Agriculture, who left the local INTI office of Lara in charge of resolving the problem. However, despite our repeated demands nothing has happened, even though in the lead up to the presidential elections the Vice-Minister promised a solution the week following the April 14th elections.* *To this day there has been no response, and we are conscious of the political situation that the country has been experiencing since December 2012. But we are also convinced that the revolution and the government activities cannot become paralyzed and left to the whims of the bureaucracy and those who have infiltrated the revolution. No one can say that our legitimate actions as a popular movement, in this case a peasant movement, are aiding the right wing. To do that is to turn
[LAAMN] FRACKING BAN: Immediate Action Needed ~ Contact Appropriations Committee Before May 15th ~ Citizens Coalition For a Safe Community
From Citizens Coalition For a Safe Community: 800c...@gmail.com FRACKING BAN Immediate Action Needed Contact Appropriations Committee Before May 15th http://r20.rs6.net/on.jsp?t=1113391594871.0.1102378654089.1053ts=S0910r=3 o=http://ui.constantcontact.com/images/p1x1.gif Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs006/1102378654089/img/67.jpg Frac330 http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs006/1102378654089/img/60.jpg URGENT ACTION NEEDED NOW Assemblymember Holly Mitchell's Hydraulic Fracturing Moratorium Bill AB 1323 Action Needed before May 15th Please take the time to call, fax and email the following Assembly Appropriations Committee members offices indicating your support for AB1323 immediately before the hearing date of May 15th. http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001rDvF8bgH9vnhoso9keXRAjGEsxUHwAsfpYepc9dLIb3m HjmDHBhWj-nJwjFBdyL2BIBTt6pe_Up7j_eZqsvYNQRmC7UdrY7hfVDMoI7jXevuP1tnJUNMl87k dZNAM6g7I8ECCW5veoWHs-F4ZELNBqgH7eGyuLfiw9YI22GhhQK33fk_c2R7KlE-OuESp6XoAaj5 b_VLSTw= Interactive List of Committee Members This list will make contact easier for you simply link, paste and send. Possible Email/FAX/Letter Content Below I support AB 1323 which places a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until a proper study with all agencies and industry and independent experts is conducted. This is the proper way to proceed given the associated risks with this highly industrial process. Hydraulic fracturing has the potential to threaten public health, increase seismicity, contaminate and deplete our aquifers, pollute our air and ground water and damage property. Hard evidence does exist that all of these negative impacts have happened in states where high volume HF has taken place. California is one of the most seismically active areas of the United States, a British Columbia governmental study in the Horn River Basin determined that earthquakes were the direct result of hydraulic fracturing operations not waste disposal as with those studies done in the USA. Oil production corporations have plans to expand old operations in densely populated urban areas in the Los Angeles Basin as well exploit new rural California wilderness using hydraulic fracturing to stimulate unconventional sources of oil and gas. These risk to the public and our commons are not acceptable, especially when industry SEC 10K statements include horizontal and deep drilling activities involve greater risk of mechanical problems than vertical and shallow drilling operations and Operating hazards, natural disasters or other interruptions of our operations could result in potential liabilities, which may not be fully covered by our insurance. I remind you that an energy company's $9,000,000,000 swindle is responsible for California's continuing budget issues, let us also not forget the public costs/losses in the Gulf incurred by the BP Macondo well disaster. Please approve AB1323 Protect California and Californians allow it to be heard and voted on by the entire California Assembly. Thank you. Your action has the potential to make this beautifully crafted moratorium bill , AB 1323, a needed protective reality for all Californians. Take Action Now! AB1323 Oil and gas: hydraulic fracturing. (1) Under existing law, the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation regulates the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells in the state. The State Oil and Gas Supervisor supervises the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities related to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field regarding safety and environmental damage. Existing law requires an operator of a well, before commencing the work of drilling the well, to obtain approval from the State Oil and Gas Supervisor or a district deputy. Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill would define hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas operations and would prohibit hydraulic fracturing until the completion of a report, as specified, and a determination is made that hydraulic fracturing can be conducted without a risk to the public health and welfare, environment, or the economy of the state. The bill would also express the intent of the Legislature to, among other things, protect the public health and welfare, natural and environmental resources, and economic interest of the state. (2) Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency consisting of various entities, departments, and boards. Existing law also establishes the California Environmental Protection Agency consisting of various entities, departments, and boards. This bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency and the Secretary for Environmental Protection to (A)
[LAAMN] Totally Pilotless drones heat up US pre-war preparations vs. China
Op-Ed Contributor Pilotless Planes, Pacific Tensions By RICHARD PARKER Published: May 12, 2013 For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT. THIS week the Navy will launch an entirely autonomous combat drone — without a pilot on a joystick anywhere — off the deck of an aircraft carrier, the George H. W. Bush. The drone will then try to land aboard the same ship, a feat only a relatively few human pilots in the world can accomplish. This exercise is the beginning of a new chapter in military history: autonomous drone warfare. But it is also an ominous turn in a potentially dangerous military rivalry now building between the United States and China. The X-47B, a stealth plane nicknamed “the Robot” by Navy crews, is a big bird — 38 feet long, with a 62-foot wingspan — that flies at high subsonic speeds with a range of over 2,000 miles. But it is the technology inside the Robot that makes it a game-changer in East Asia. Its entirely computerized takeoff, flight and landing raise the possibility of dozens or hundreds of its successors engaged in combat at once. It is also capable of withstanding radiation levels that would kill a human pilot and destroy a regular jet’s electronics: in addition to conventional bombs, successors to this test plane could be equipped to carry a high-power microwave, a device that emits a burst of radiation that would fry a tech-savvy enemy’s power grids, knocking out everything connected to it, including computer networks that connect satellites, ships and precision-guided missiles. And these, of course, are among the key things China has invested in during its crash-course military modernization. While the United States Navy is launching an autonomous drone, the Chinese Navy is playing catch-up with piloted carrier flight. Last November the Chinese Navy landed a J-15 jet fighter on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier, the country’s first carrier landing. Though China still has miles to go in developing a carrier fleet to rival America’s, the landing demonstrates its ambitions. With nearly half a million sailors and fast approaching 1,000 vessels, its navy is by some measures already the second largest in the world. With that new navy, Beijing seeks to project its power over a series of island chains far into the Pacific: the first extends southward from the Korean Peninsula, down the eastern shore of Taiwan, encircling the South China Sea, while the second runs southeast from Japan to the Bonin and Marshall Islands, encompassing both the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory, and Guam — the key American base in the western Pacific. Some unofficial Chinese military literature even refers to a third chain: the Hawaiian Islands. To project this kind of power, China must rely not only on the quantity of its ships but also on the quality of its technology. Keeping the Americans half an ocean away requires the capability for long-range precision strikes — which, in turn, require the satellite reconnaissance, cyber warfare, encrypted communications and computer networks in which China has invested nearly $100 billion over the last decade. Ideally for both countries, China’s efforts would create a new balance of power in the region. But to offset China’s numerical advantage and technological advances, the United States Navy is betting heavily on drones — not just the X-47B and its successors, but anti-submarine reconnaissance drones, long-range communications drones, even underwater drones. A single hunter-killer pairing of a Triton reconnaissance drone and a P-8A Poseidon piloted anti-submarine plane can sweep 2.7 million square miles of ocean in a single mission. The arms race between the world’s largest navies undermines the likelihood of attaining a new balance of power, and raise the possibility of unintended collisions as the United States deploys hundreds, even thousands of drones and China scrambles for ways to counter the new challenge. And drones, because they are cheap and don’t need a human pilot, lower the bar for aggressive behavior on the part of America’s military leaders — as they will for China’s navy, as soon as it makes its own inevitable foray into drone capabilities (indeed, there were reports last week that China was preparing its own stealth drone for flight tests). By themselves, naval rivalries do not start wars. During peacetime, in fact, naval operations are a form of diplomacy, which provide rivals with healthy displays of force that serve as deterrents to war. But they have to be enveloped in larger political relationships, too. At present, the United States-China relationship is really just about economics. As long as that relationship remains vibrant, confrontation is in neither country’s interest. But should that slender reed snap, there is little in the way of a larger political
[LAAMN] should photographers try to depict reality or try to change it?
GETTING PAST THE ICON -- SHOULD PHOTOGRAPHERS DEPICT REALITY, OR TRY TO CHANGE IT? By David Bacon afterimage, the journal of media arts and cultural criticism, vol. 40, no. 6 http://vsw.org/afterimage/issues/afterimage-vol-40-no-6/ This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement Edited by Leslie G. Kelen University Press of Mississippi, 2011 Copublished with The Center for Documentary Expression and Art 251pp,/$45.00 Photography in Mexico San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA March 10 - July 8, 2012 Can photographers be participants in the social events they document? Eighty years ago the question would have seemed irrelevant in the political upsurges of the 1930s, in both Mexico and the United States. Many photographers were political activists, and saw their work intimately connected to workers strikes, political revolution or the movements for indigenous rights. Today what was an obvious link is often viewed as a dangerous conflict of interest. Politics compromise art. Photographers must be objective and neutral, or at least stand at a distance from the reality they record on film or the compact flash card. Now a book and a recent exhibition have provided both images and the narrative experiences of photographers that should reopen this debate. This Light of Ours, Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, was published recently by the University Press of Mississippi, and the exhibition, Photography in Mexico, ran at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last year. The book and exhibit share a common discourse about the relation between documentary photographers and social movements. The book is an intensive look at the photographers of just one movement -- the civil rights movement in the U.S. south during the 1960s. The exhibit highlights the changing relationship between photographers and Mexico's social movements from the Revolution to the present. This Light of Ours is a beautiful collection of almost 200 black and white photographs, duo toned and reproduced in extraordinary brilliance. They were taken, not by mainstream media photographers who visited the south during the most intense moments of the upheaval of the 1960s, but by photographers who worked as part of the civil rights movement itself, especially the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Interviews with six of the nine photographers follow the photographs. Bob Fitch, who went on to document the farm worker movement in California after his years in the south, captures the perspective shared by these civil rights photographers and the impact the movement made on their lives. I did various kinds of organizing for the balance of my life and photographed those activities as I went through, he says in his interview. And I perceived myself as an organizer who uses a camera to tell the story of my work, which is true today.1 Ed Fondren, 104 years old, Bob Fitch, Batesville, Mississippi, 1966 To Fitch, work as a photographer springs from his work as an organizer. Both are a means to fight for social and racial justice. Because he's an organizer, he's there when friends carry El Fondren, 104 years old, from the courthouse after registering to vote (an act which cost people their lives in Mississippi at the time). Fitch's quick eye frames Fondren between two hands about to clap in celebration, with other hands reaching up. Like all the photos in the book, it's a document of a critical historical moment, and at the same time an inspiration to other Black farmers to go down to the courthouse. It is also a beautiful image.2 Fitch's organizer's perspective does not make him less of a photographer. His portrait of Cesar Chavez was used for the U.S. postage stamp. His image of Dorothy Day surrounded by helmeted sheriffs during the Coachella grape strike became one of the best-known photographs of the early years of the United Farm Workers. But Fitch's perspective puts him at odds with that taught in journalism schools and practiced in the mainstream media. Photographers today are expected to be objective observers of events, not active participants in them. In fact, participation in marches or demonstrations is held to so compromise a photographer that it is grounds for discharge at newspapers like the New York Times or Washington Post. Matt Herron, one of the best-known photographers in the book, describes three goals for his work as a SNCC photographer: I was a budding photojournalist, that was foremost, and that was how I was gonna support the family, he remembers. I was also a propagandist for the movement. When movement people wanted pictures I did it and they used them...I wanted to do social documentary work on the way of life that was southern, both black and white, and to try and document this weird culture that we'd thrust ourselves into.3 Black labor
[LAAMN] Rally to Protest Koch Hate in LA Tomorrow!
Rally to Protest Koch Hate in LA Tomorrow! Sisters and Brothers: Tomorrow is our day to tell the Koch Brothers that we don't want their hate in LA. It is unacceptable that the owners of the Tribune Co., who also manage billions of dollars of public employee pension funds, would even consider selling the LA Times to right wing extremists like the Koch brothers. Please e-mail us at n...@launionaflcio.org and let us know you're coming. Better yet, tell us how many people are coming with you! -- Maria Elena Durazo Download printable flyer. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] No terrorist bombings, no attacks on Syrian refugees!
*Aftermath of Saturday's car bombs in Reyhanli in Turkey* The blast occurred on Saturday in a crowded area of town in the southern province of Hatay, a few kilometres from the main border crossing into Syria. A double car bombing in the Turkish town Reyhanli that killed 43 people and injured 140. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=9q1EiwGyhso Al Kawakabis grandchildren: No terrorist bombings, no attacks on Syrian refugeeshttp://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/al-kawakabis-grandchildren-no-terrorist-bombings-no-attacks-on-syrian-refugees/ Posted on May 13, 2013http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/al-kawakabis-grandchildren-no-terrorist-bombings-no-attacks-on-syrian-refugees/ http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/al-kawakabis-grandchildren-no-terrorist-bombings-no-attacks-on-syrian-refugees/#respond [image: 487393_379634845451826_374818026_n]http://syriafreedomforever.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/487393_379634845451826_374818026_n.jpg Al Kawakabis grandchildren is popular organization struggling for the victory of the Syrian Revolution, mainly located in the city of Aleppo. The statements of Turkish officials regrading the recent bombings in Rihaniyya points to the responsibility of Turkish forces loyal to Assad, these same parties involved in the recent massacres in Banias and recognized clearly in the words of one its senior criminals (Mihraj Ural). What happened yesterday in Rihaniyya is truly shameful. Instead of popular anger being directed on the killer, which has proved to be involved in the blood spilling of the two peoples, we are seeing this anger directed against the victims and by whom? By those with whom the killer have citizenship ties. Instead of addressing the crimes to their home city and region the people of Rihaiyya have poured out their anger on the Syrian refugee people. Is it not enough what suffered the brothers in Banias at the hands of these gangs without being accountable for it, to even cause them harm across the borders to their shelters? On what basis are the refugees held guilty and responsible for the crimes committed by Turkey twice? Therefore if we condemn the bombings suffered by the city of Rihaniyya and if we deeply regret the blood of the innocent victims of our brothers and our Turkish guests, we condemn as well the sufferings of our Syrian brothers in Rihaniyya from the attacks affecting their children and their property and we demand to link the investigation of the bombings to the investigation of these aggression because we see these two crimes as one single sery aiming to chase out the Syrians refugees by the Syrian regime and its agents, even in their shelters and by threatening the stability of these asylum areas and to incite public opinion against them. Al Kawakabis grandchildren May 12 2013 http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/al-kawakabis-grandchildren-no-terrorist-bombings-no-attacks-on-syrian-refugees/ -- The Assad Regime Sniper, the Old Man and the Hero http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-assad-regime-sniper-old-man-and-hero.html http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/ Some on the Left say there is no good side in the civil war in Syria. They see regime thugs on one side and Islamist terrorist on the other side. That is just so much propaganda. That's not how it is. This is how it is [Thanks to Basel Watfa https://twitter.com/Baselsyrian for the link to the video] : A Syrian hero saved an old man life wounded by sniper in Aleppo | 8 May 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedv=KX3801-ha3k The old man in the middle of the street has been wounded and still can be targeted by Assad's snipers. They could easily finish him off at any time but they want to use him as bait for other civilians. The trick for the people is to get the old man to safety without anyone else gets shot. After they try it with ropes, one hero runs out into the street to bring the old man to safety. That's when the sniper opens up on them. You'll have to watch the video to see how things turn out. This is the type of depraved regime the Syria people are dealing with. Now some on the left, like Carl Davidsonhttp://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=8511#comment-48587, would argue that its wrong to characterize this as a struggle between the regime and the people. He would point out that the sniper is people too, to which I respond, *Those aren't what I call people. * * * http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-assad-regime-sniper-old-man-and-hero.html * * From PRWeb http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/5/prweb10712646.htm we have this report of a demonstration in Chicago in support of the Syria Revolution: Chicago Syrians Host Die-In to Protest Banyas MassacreSyrian American
[LAAMN] Fw: UFW bill passes CA Senate moves on to Assembly. Take action NOW!
UFW bill passes CA Senate moves on to Assembly. Take action NOW! UFW bill passes CA Senate moves on to Assembly. Take action NOW! If you live outside of CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25nat If you live in CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25 If you live outside of CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25nat If you live in CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25 Farm workers won a key victory last week when SB 25 passed the California state Senate. It now goes to the state Assembly. The bill would close legal loopholes and stop elaborate games growers use to deny their workers union contract protections. It is critical that this bill now pass the Assembly. Assemblymembers Rudy Salas, Isadore Hall and Jose Medina's votes are crucial to make this happen. Can you please send them your message today to let know how important it is to pass SB 25? Here's why SB 25 is needed: • One of California's biggest vegetable growers refused to bargain for a United Farm Workers contract over 32 years after workers voted for the union. They finally won their contract only after a UFW-sponsored law passed in 2002 letting farm workers bring in neutral mediators to hammer out union agreements when growers refuse to negotiate. Since that first union contract expired in 2010, the grower has delayed renegotiating the contract. • During the 1980s, 54 growers employing about 10,000 union members protected by UFW contracts allegedly went out of business and changed corporate identities to deny farm workers representation by the UFW—and this practice continues today. • In March 2012, the UFW asked the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board to order a large tomato grower into binding mediation under the 2002 law. The tomato grower refused to implement the decisions of the mediator and the ALRB so the workers could have a UFW contract. The ALRB says it lacks legal authority to go to court to make the company honor the law. SB 25, by state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and also sponsored by the UFW, would provide for binding mediation when growers refuse to renegotiate existing union contracts. It would also stop companies from using corporate restructuring to deny farm workers the union representation for which they voted. And it would close a loophole in the 2002 binding mediation law that leaves the state powerless when growers ignore orders to implement union contracts. Please take action today by sending your message of support for SB 25 to these crucial Assemblymembers. If you live outside of CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25nat If you live in CA go to: http://action.ufw.org/sb25 After you sign the pledge, please ask your friends and family to sign too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or by going to http://action.ufw.org/sb25share OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED.Please add our new email u...@ufw.org to your safelist/address book so that our messages don’t get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail. Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news. Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook, YouTube, Twitter pages. Become our friend and follow us. If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for the UFW List Serve. United Farm Workers, P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To
[LAAMN] Malcolm Shabazz's Suspicious Death
Malcolm Shabazz’s Suspicious Death By Stephen Lendman on May 10, 2013 6:07 pm On May 9, Amsterdam News (AN) headlined “Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, killed.” AN said he was killed in Tijuana, Mexico. Unconfirmed reports said “he died early Thursday morning, May 9, 2013, from injuries sustained after he was thrown off a building or shot as he was being robbed….” Family members acknowledged his death. They haven’t confirmed where or how. Talking Points Memo (TPM) said it “independently confirmed his death through a (non-family) source with close knowledge of the situation.” It said he “was beaten during a robbery Wednesday night in Mexico City.” A State Department source said: “We are aware of the death of a US citizen in Mexico City. We have been in contact with family members, and at their request we have no further comment at this time.” Shabazz was Malcolm X’s grandson. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was killed as he was about to speak in Manhattan. In his autobiography, he commented on his possible death, saying: “Every morning when I wake now, I regard it as a having another borrowed day.” “In any city, wherever I go, making speeches, holding meetings of my organisation, or attending to other business, black men are watching every move I make, awaiting their chance to kill me, I have said publicly many times that I know that they have their orders.” “Anyone who chooses not to believe what I am saying doesn’t know the Muslims in the Nation of Islam.” “I know, too, that I could suddenly die at the hands of some white racists. Or I could die at the hands of some Negro hired by the white man.” “Or it could be some brainwashed Negro acting on his own idea that by eliminating me, he would be helping out the white man because I talk about the white man the way I do.” Who killed Malcolm matters less than who wanted him dead and ordered it. Others will have to decide. Perhaps history will have final say. The same holds for Shabazz. It’s unclear who killed him and why. He once said he and his family were persecuted “by select businessmen and government officials. I’ve been a target my entire life. My family is targeted.” More on that below. On February 4, Press TV headlined “FBI arrests Malcolm X grandson en route to Iran,” saying: He was scheduled to participate in a Tehran Hollywoodism conference. At the time, the FBI “refused to provide any information about his whereabouts.” US media scoundrels reported nothing. This writer also participated in the conference via Skype from Chicago. Perhaps it was wise choice. At a time of increasing tyranny, Washington critics have good reason to fear. Press TV published a statement Shabazz posted on Cynthia McKinney’s Facebook page. In part it said: “I sincerely appreciate the care concern of the People over my well-being after Press TV’s report of the most recent events which have transpired regarding the F.B.I.’s harassment of me.” “Given the storm of lies, and half-truths that come with being associated with….Minister Malcolm X….I will take this opportunity to properly fully disclose what transpired.” “In the beginning of 2012, I had been informed that I was under investigation by the FBI’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, NY.” “The agents of this division-and in collaboration with others-have visited several residences of which I was known by them to frequent.” They told “surrounding residents to observe the house and to notify them if they saw me.” “These are the homes of long-time friends, and very close supporters. Yet, when federal agents begin knocking on someone’s door on multiple occasions to snoop, and ask questions, whether one is guilty of an offense or not, it’s enough to coerce people into distancing themselves from you.” “This cheap tactic employed by the FBI is a means of agitation harassment. They seek to neutralize my networking abilities. They have visited locations in California, Chicago, Miami and most aggressively in New York.” “People were advising me that if I had nothing to hide, then I should just contact them as requested and cooperate. Though I must say that in these kind of matters I am of a particular ethic.” For one, I have been engaged in no criminal activity of their concern, and they could have located me if they so chose. Secondly, I don’t recognize the authority in them beckoning me.” “It wasn’t even until my mother informed me that they had been contacting her that I truly became agitated.” “She advised me to see what they had to say, and so I obliged the next time they came around looking for me. My encounter was with 2 federal agents of Goshen, NY’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit. The primary agent identified himself as Special Agent Tom Brozicky.” “They expressed concern” in his “international travels.” “I have lived studied in Damascus, Syria for over a year, and now the US is instigating conflict within the very same
[LAAMN] America's excessive nuke arsenal
America’s Excessive Nuke Arsenal http://consortiumnews.com/2013/05/10/americas-excessive-nuke-arsenal/ May 10, 2013 Slashing the U.S. nuclear stockpile – and still having plenty of bombs left over for “deterrence” – would represent a huge saving to the American taxpayers and could help leverage more cooperation on nuclear proliferation in other countries, writes ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman. By Melvin A. Goodman The nuclear imbroglio with North Korea has cooled off considerably, and the nuclear issues with Iran remain on the back burner. At home, however, there is a new nuclear concern that involves the removal in April of 17 Air Force officers assigned to stand watch over nuclear-tipped Minuteman missiles at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. In a blunt memorandum, the deputy commander of the missile unit described a “crisis” that involved “rot in the crew force.” In view of the lack of career opportunities for Air Force officers in the missile field, it should not be surprising that there has been loss of discipline, sloppy performance, and even the intentional violation of nuclear safety rules. Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile photographed during a U.S. Navy flight test in 2002 at China Lake, California. (Navy photo) This incident raises serious questions about the need for the intense alert status at the missile base where two officers are on constant alert at all times inside an underground launching control center, ready to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) upon presidential order. Since it is impossible to imagine any foreign policy objectives that would be served by launching these missiles and, moreover, impossible to calculate the level of fatalities and devastation that would accompany a nuclear attack at any level, it is certainly past time for the nuclear powers, including the United States, to surrender the overwhelming majority of their nuclear weapons. In order to stop nuclear proliferation and reduce the risk of any use of nuclear weapons, the United States must examine its own nuclear inventory and find a way to reduce its nuclear forces. One of the best-kept defense secrets of the past 60 years has been the high cost of producing and maintaining nuclear weapons, somewhere between $5 trillion to $6 trillion, which represents one-fourth of overall defense spending. The total is roughly equivalent to the total budget spent on the Army or the Navy since World War II. The staggering cost of maintaining bloated nuclear programs over the next decade will amount to $600 billion. When the United States initially began to develop and deploy nuclear weapons, the military-industrial complex stressed that the huge investment in nuclear systems would be an overall savings because it would allow for a smaller army and navy. The United States has built more than 70,000 nuclear weapons since the end of World War II and, at the arsenal’s peak in 1967, there were more than 32,000 weapons in the stockpile. Even in the post-Cold War era, the cost of maintaining and deploying nuclear weapons is more than $25 billion a year. Contrary to the military’s promise, our army and navy have gotten costlier for taxpayers. Two decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States still has 2,500 deployed nuclear weapons as well as 2,600 nuclear weapons in reserve, along with thousands of warheads in its inventory. In 2011, two U.S. Air Force officers wrote an authoritative essay that pointed specifically to 331 nuclear weapons as providing an assured deterrence capability. Other important nuclear powers such as Britain, France, and China appear to agree, deploying 200 to 300 nuclear weapons as sufficient for deterrence. The key non-signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (Israel, India, and Pakistan) have similarly focused on 200 nuclear weapons as the appropriate size for deterrence. The United States should consider ending its dependence on the nuclear triad, which consists of ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers. The elimination of nuclear weapons from strategic bombers would reduce the nuclear triad to a more than sufficient dyad, and would bring savings of more than $40 billion. The current fleet of 14 nuclear-armed submarines could be cut in half, which would still leave the United States with 875 nuclear warheads at sea. An end to production of the D5 SLBM and the retirement of hundreds of Minuteman ICBM missiles would bring huge savings in operating and maintenance costs. If the United States reduced its intercontinental ballistic missiles from 500 to 300, it would save $80 billion over the next ten years. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, supports such reductions as well as delaying the purchase of additional strategic bombers for another decade. In July 2011, General James Cartwright, then deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, favored reassessing the role of nuclear weapons
