News
The Bombing of Yugoslavia will Fail to Achieve its Goals
According to the media, the bombing of Yugoslavia has three goals: 1) to stop the atrocities; 2) to weaken Milosevic and, if possible, to remove him from power, and 3) to prevent a war that could be wider than Kosovo. All three goals will fail. The bombing will aggravate the problems it is supposed to solve. Goal #1: Stop the atrocities: I know from personal exposure what Milosevic thinks. It is his [...]
General Lee Butler Addresses The Canadian Network Against Nuclear Weapons
"... nuclear weapons are the enemy of humanity. Indeed, they’re not weapons at all. They’re some species of biological time bombs whose effects transcend time and space, poisoning the earth and its inhabitants for generations to come." "... today we find ourselves in the almost unbelievable circumstance in which United States nuclear weapons policy is still very much that of 1984, as introduced by Ronald Reagan. That our forces with their [...]
The Cost of an Afghan ‘Victory’
Ten years ago, on February 15, 1989, as the last of the 115,000 Soviet soldiers crossed over from Afghanistan into Soviet Tajikistan, there was quiet celebration in Washington as well as Riyadh and Islamabad. Officials in these capitals visualized Moscow's retreat as the first, crucial step in the re-emergence of an independent Afghanistan ready to ally with the United States. The US-Saudi-Pakistani alliance had played the central role in training, arming and [...]
Imagine Peace
"Can you imagine a world in which the hungry are fed, the cold are clothed, the homeless are housed? Can you imagine a world that is peaceful, a world in which war is only a memory?" "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."—President Dwight D. [...]
NATO’s Expansion: Provocation, Not Leadership
NATO claims that by bringing Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the 16-member Organization, the new NATO will "meet the challenges of the 21st century." But 50 American former Senators, diplomats and officials maintain that NATO expansion would be "a policy error of historic proportions." George Kennan, the father of the U.S. containment policy on the Soviet Union, says: "Expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in [...]
Needed: An Updated Strategy for Nuclear Security During the Disarmament Process
The continuing success of the global efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament is impressive. Awareness of the true dimensions of the continuing nuclear threat has been raised, yet success in these efforts has revealed an inherent danger in the disarmament process. Security programs developed for the armament process are not, in many cases, adequate for the disarmament process. Nuclear weapons security is designed to provide a continuity of protection from manufacture to installation [...]
Groups win Landmark Nuclear Weapons “Cleanup” Victory
WASHINGTON, DC/SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- To settle a lawsuit brought by 39 environmental and peace organizations including the Oakland-based Western States Legal Foundation and Livermore's Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has signed a landmark agreement which will increase public oversight of its efforts to address severe contamination problems in the nation's nuclear weapons complex. The settlement, which was delivered to Federal District Court Judge [...]
The Nuremberg Promise and the International Criminal Court
The Nuremberg Promise was the hope that someday there would be standards and effective mechanisms to hold all individuals accountable for acts constituting the most serious crimes under international law. At Nuremberg, justice was imperfectly done. The victors applied standards of accountability to the leaders of the defeated nations that they refused to apply to themselves. Nonetheless, Nuremberg established standards of accountability that were applied to Nazi leaders for crimes of unimaginable [...]
U.S. Military Action Undermines the Rule of Law
When it was first announced by President Clinton that the United States would launch a military strike against Iraq, I wondered about the legality of this attack under international law. I carefully read President Clinton's speech announcing the attack, and found a reference to a UN Security Council resolution that condemned Iraq's defiance of the UN inspection team by a vote of 15 to zero. Upon review of the resolution, however, I [...]
National Cancer Institute’s Management of Radiation Studies: A Congressional Investigation
The role of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the study assessing the public health impacts of exposure of the American people to fallout from atomic bomb tests detonated at the Nevada Test Site in the l950s was the focus of a recent congressional investigation.This investigation also assessed the NCI's role in management of three studies of Chernobyl exposed populations. The congressional investigation found: I. Researchers at the NCI substantially delayed the [...]
General Lee Butler on NATO’s Nuclear Policy
Jean-Pol Poncelet Minister of Defense Belgian Ministry of Defense Belgium Via Fax: 32-2-550-29-19 Dear Defense Minister Poncelet, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer’s suggestion that NATO revise its nuclear doctrine is most welcome. As you discuss these matters with your colleagues it may be that my own experience in thinking through this question as the Director of Strategic Plans and Policy for the U. S. armed forces during the Gulf war might be [...]
Canada and the Nuclear Challenge
The report of the Canadian House of Commons' Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, entitled "Canada and the Nuclear Challenge," was released today. The committee's 15 recommendations are reproduced in full below. LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATION 1 The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada adopt the following fundamental principle to guide its nuclear non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament policy, within an overarching framework encompassing all aspects - political, military, [...]
Statement by Senator Douglas Roche on Canada’s Nuclear Challenge
The Report of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee on Canada's policies on nuclear weapons is a landmark document and deserves the support of all Canadians. After two years' study, the Committee has exposed the fallacy that nuclear weapons provide security and urges the Government of Canada to "play a leading role in finally ending the nuclear threat overhanging humanity." The Report's leading recommendations would, if implemented, put Canada squarely in the body [...]
Scientists Demand NATO: No First Use of Nuclear Weapons as an Essential First Step Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World
The German initiators of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP) demand a No-First-Use pledge for nuclear weapons as an essential step towards a nuclear-weapon-free world. We support the initiative by the German Foreign Minister for a No-First Use in NATO and demand further steps leading to complete nuclear disarmament. The decision of Germany and 11 further NATO member states, not to vote against resolution A/C.1/53/L.48 "Towards a Nuclear [...]
European Parliament Resolution on the New Agenda Coalition on nuclear disarmament
The European Parliament, - having regard to its previous resolutions on nuclear disarmament, testing and non-proliferation, A. welcoming the joint statement of 9 June 1998 by the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa and Sweden, entitled, 'Towards a nuclear-weapon-free world: the needs for a new agenda', a group also known as the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), B. welcoming the broad diversity of this coalition of countries, [...]
Philip Berrigan Released from Federal Prison
Before dawn on Feb. 12, 1997, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, six religious peace activists, Steve Baggarly from Norfolk, Vir., Philip Berrigan, a former Josephite priest from Baltimore, Mark Colville of New Haven, Conn., Susan Crane, from Baltimore, Tom Lewis-Borbely of Worcester, Mass. and the Rev. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit priest from San Jose, Calif., calling themselves Prince of Peace Plowshares, boarded the USS The Sullivans, an [...]
Senator Kerrey calls on U.S. to cut Nuclear Weapons Unilaterally
Writing in the Washington Post on November 17, 1998, Walter Pincus reports that Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb) will call on President Clinton to immediately make unilateral reductions in the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal and to de-alert many nuclear weapons that remain. Kerrey is quoted as stating that the $25 billion spend maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal could be better spend on more important military threats like regional war, ethnic conflict, and international [...]
UN General Assembly First Committee Resolution Towards a Nuclear Weapon-Free World: The Need for a New Agenda
Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Ireland, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Samoa, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, Togo, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia: Revised Draft Resolution The General Assembly, Alarmed by the threat to the very survival of mankind posed by the existence of nuclear weapons, Concerned at the prospect of the indefinite possession of [...]
U.S. Blocking Progress on Nuclear Disarmament
The Cold War may be long over, but the United States and other declared nuclear powers still cling to their nuclear weapons. An estimated 36,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world's nuclear arsenals, thousands of them ready to launch on a moment's notice, and the nuclear powers continue to squander billions of dollars on nuclear weapons research and development. Meanwhile an ever growing list of countries are lining up to join the [...]
Nuclear Weapons and Sustainability
Nothing threatens sustainability more than nuclear weapons. And yet these weapons are rarely considered in discussions of sustainability, which tend to focus on resources and environmental degradation. The simple fact is that nuclear weapons are capable of destroying not only our most precious global resources and degrading our global environment, but of destroying civilization if not humanity itself. The possession and threat to use nuclear weapons also afflicts the souls and spirits [...]
International Peace Bureau Condemns Pro-Nuclear Strong Arm Tactics
The International Peace Bureau (IPB), at their annual meeting in London today, protested against intimidation tactics used by the United States, United Kingdom and France in trying to kill a resolution at the United Nations which calls for a commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons, and to achieve practical steps towards that goal. IPB, a Nobel Peace laureate, gave its full support for draft resolution A/C.1/53/L.48, which has been introduced by Brazil, Egypt, [...]
UN Committee Passes Nuclear Disarmament Resolution
The United Nations First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), by a vote of 100 in favour, 25 against and 23 abstentions, today adopted resolution A/C.1/53/L.45, entitled "Follow-up to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons." The resolution welcomes the conclusion of the ICJ "that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations [...]
Resolution 1205 (1998)
Adopted by the Security Council at its 3939th meeting. The Security Council, Recalling all its previous relevant resolutions on the situation in Iraq, in particular its resolution 1154 (1998) of 2 March 1998 and 1194 (1998) of 9 September 1998, Noting with alarm the decision of Iraq on 31 October 1998 to cease cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission, and its continued restrictions on the work of the International Atomic Energy [...]
Canada Defies U.S. and Lobbies UN for Passage of NAC Resolution
In response to US pressure to vote against the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) resolution in the General Assembly, THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT is sending representations at the ambassadorial level to the following capitals to ask them to support the New Agenda Coalition (NAC) resolution: Tokyo, The Hague, Bonn, Oslo, Rome, Vienna, Canberra, Madrid and Copenhagen. The Middle Powers Initiative (MPI) is urgently asking NGOs in all of these capitals to contact their governments [...]
United Nations Considering Two Resolutions That Would Advance the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons; Support Needed for New Agenda Coalition and Malaysian Resolutions
The New Agenda Coalition (NAC) and Malaysia have submitted two resolutions in the United Nations which will advance the goals of Abolition 2000. The NAC Resolution, organized by the Eight Nation Intitiative of Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, and Slovenia, calls on the nuclear weapons states " to demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to the speedy and total elimination of their respective nuclear weapons and without delay to pursue [...]