[NukeNet] Call Jeff Bingaman TODAY to stop low-yield nuclear simulation explosion, pit production -- Action Alert #69

[Bill Smirnow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Greg Mello
To: LASG main listserve
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 9:32 AM
Subject: [Los Alamos Study Group] Urgent: Call
Jeff Bingaman TODAY to stop low-yield nuclear
simulation explosion, pit production -- Action
Alert #69

  Bingaman can be reached at: 202-224-3121 &
1-877-762-8762. Please spread this around. His
fax# is at:  http://www.senate.gov and through his
offfice phone [above].


   Dear friends and colleagues -- 

1. A massive explosion is planned to simulate a
U.S. attack on underground targets with a
low-yield nuclear earth-penetrating weapon.  The
test, dubbed "Divine Strake," is to involve some
700 tons of explosives.  Grassroots activists in
Nevada and Utah drove the test out of the Nevada
Test Site and the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR)
is a very likely location for the test.  Arms
control lobbyists in Washington, DC believe
Senator Bingaman could stop this test by offering
a floor amendment TODAY, when the Defense
Appropriations Bill is said to be coming to the
floor of the Senate for final passage.  This seems
quite a long shot, but still it is important for
the Senator to hear from New Mexicans on this
issue.  By far the most thoughtful background on
the Divine Strake issue is at
DisarmamantActivist.org.

Earlier, I wrote the Senator as follows, using
language I thought even some defense hawks could
understand:

  The Senator could gain many friends by offering
and fighting for a floor amendment to the Defense
Appropriations Bill to cancel this test.  It may
be in his state, so his views might well be
heeded.  He would thereby also do a big service to
U.S. national security, which would be damaged by
a surrogate nuclear test simulating low-yield
nuclear attack munitions.  I won't belabor the
point; it ought to be a "no-brainer."  Many people
are asking, is there anyone conscious enough on
Capital Hill to stop the terrible erosion in the
world's opinion concerning the United States?  In
the most conservative terms, since we can't fully
stop terrorists by military and technical means,
each time we give terrorist constituencies more
reasons to hate us we directly damage our own
security.  This is not rocket science.

Make the call, but don't hold your breath.
Usually, when we call or write a member of our
congressional delegation, we are at risk of merely
placating ourselves.  If we are truly serious
about our values, truly serious about protecting
our children, truly serious about restoring our
democracy, make the call and then get busy doing
what needs to be done to REALLY make things
happen.  The actions we have suggested in past
Action Alerts are a good place to start.

2. While you are talking to Bingaman's office,
please ask him to speak out against funding the
new plutonium warhead core ("pit") production
support facility planned for Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL).  This $1+ billion facility is
opposed by the House Appropriations Committee,
which calls it "irrational" and "absurd."  As far
as we know only Senator Domenici is promoting it
in the entire Congress.  It is a central part of
the plan to build a large-scale pit production
facility at LANL over the next 8 years,
re-starting nuclear weapons production for the
U.S. after what will be a 19-year hiatus and then
increasing production rates to 200 pits/year and
beyond in order to manufacture thousands of pits
and thousands of new nuclear weapons,
"revitalizing" the nuclear production
infrastructure, stockpiling the new weapons
thought to be more appropriate for threatening
countries like Iran and North Korea (but by no
means limited to these), and crushing the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).  Here is some
background, but detailed knowledge is not
necessary for effective action.

Bingaman's phone numbers are here:
http://bingaman.senate.gov/contact/offices/index.cfm.
His general contact page is here:
http://bingaman.senate.gov/contact/.

More actions you can take will follow in Action
Alert #70.

Very best to all,

Greg Mello

If you want to take part in nuclear
disarmament-related activities relating to New
Mexico or its laboratories, we urge you to send a
blank email to
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<mailto:lasgnewmex-subscribe at lists.riseup.net>.
This will add you to a New Mexico-oriented nuclear
disarmament listserve, which receives more
information than the one conveying this message.
(If you don't want to be on that list-serve, you
need take no action. And if you don't want to be
on THIS list-serve, just send a blank email to
lasg-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net
<mailto:lasg-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net>.)

-- 
Greg Mello * Los Alamos Study Group
2901 Summit Place NE * Albuquerque, NM 87106
505-265-1200 voice * 505-265-1207 fax *
505-577-8563 cell
www.lasg.org

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