Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance, Abolition Movement, United Nations Treaty Newsletter 2018

OMNI

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE AUGUST 12, 2018, NUCLEAR WEAPONS  ABOLITION MOVEMENT, UNITED NATIONS ABOLITION TREATY,  2018 NEWSLETTER

Compiled by Dick Bennett

for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI PROGRAM AUGUST 12, 2018

The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the United Nations renounces war and threats of war, joins the ICAN and Global Zero abolition movement, and celebrates the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons.  

OMNI Center holds its annual Hiroshima Nagasaki Memorial

Sunday August 12, 2018, 6:00 pm

For more information see facebook event: Annual Hiroshima Nagasaki Remembrance

Contact Gladys Tiffany, 479-283-2167. Dick Bennett, 479-422-4600.  

2018 NEWSLETTER CONTENTS

Back from the Brink: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance Program and Nuclear Weapons Abolition,  August 12, 2018

The Program, 6pm

ABOLITION MOVEMENT

Petition your Congressmen

Ellsberg’s new book, The Doomsday Machine

US Anti-Nuclear Organizations: 
        ICAN, NAPF, FAS, GZ, BAS, WAND, Peace Action

VFP, Demonstrate v. Tridents on East Coast

WAND

Peace Action

Danger at Kashmir:  India v. Pakistan

TEXTS

REMEMBERING HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI PROGRAM 2018 OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology invites you to attend our annual Remembrance of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to protest the continued US development, deployment, and first strike nuclear war planning,  Sunday, August 12, Fulbright Fountain, 6p.m., UAF. 

OMNI remembers the death of 230,000 innocents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, renounces war and threats of war, joins ICAN and Global Zero hopes of all humanity for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and celebrates the United Nations Treaty Initiative to ban nuclear weapons.  

BACK FROM THE BRINK

Welcome and memorial statement for Bill Williams

Proclamation – Mayor Lioneld Jordan

Opening story – “Feathers and Fools”  -  Kelly & Donna Mulhollan

Daniel Ellsberg book The Doomsday Machine – Abel Tomlinson

Poetry – “If Just One…“  - Joe Neal

"War, it never works"  -  Speaker – Sr. Rosalie Rueswald, St. Scholastica Monastery, Fort Smith

Music – “Liberty” -- Walter Schmidt

Obon Lights Ceremony

Reading of Names of the Dead –Karen Takemoto, Abel Tomlinson

Keynote Speaker  –  "Remembering the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atrocities: Seventy Three years On" -- – Dr. Jeremy Kuzmarov

Closing music – Kelly & Donna, May Peace Prevail on Earth chant

OMNI Center has sponsored this annual observance since 2001, continuing a Fayetteville peace community tradition that began in the 1970’s.  It has always been a deeply meaningful occasion for people who long for peace. 

OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, & Ecology is a community hub of progressive people who want a nonviolent, sustainable, and just world, and support many projects to accomplish that.   Find us at www.omnicenter.org or on facebook at OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology, or OMNI Center Open Forum.

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

ABOLITION MOVEMENT

Back from the Brink

https://www.preventnuclearwar.org/

Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War is a national grassroots campaign seeking to fundamentally change U.S. nuclear weapons policy and lead ...

PETITION

Tell Congressmen you want the US to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons  

Sample Message from WILPF to support Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, which could be used to contact U.S. Representatives:

Support the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

I am committed to a world without nuclear weapons. I endorse the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017. As a citizen or resident of the United States, I call upon the President to sign and the Senate to give its consent to ratify this Treaty.

Further, I call upon the President, with the support of the Senate, to lead the way to negotiate the total elimination of nuclear weapons, and to redirect current and planned nuclear weapons spending to human and environmental needs.

Background - The use of nuclear weapons, either intentional or accidental, will cause untold suffering to millions of people and is a threat to the existence of humankind. The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a legally binding treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. The Treaty prohibits, among other things, the possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. [To see the Treaty: http://undocs.org/A/CONF.229/2017/8.]

Daniel Ellsberg’s new book, The Doomsday Machine

Hans Morgenthau in 1961 warned the US of nuclear annihilation (“Death in the Nuclear Age,” an essay in Commentary magazine that detailed in stark terms the cost a nuclear war would exact on humanity.)  But our leaders did not listen and the people were in denial.

THE STONE
How to Be a Prophet of Doom By Alison McQueen.   New York Times, May 11.     2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/opinion/nuclear-doomsday-denial.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront       Ms. McQueen is an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University.

Now Daniel Ellsberg Repeats the Warning from Inside the US OMNICIDE MACHINE

Daniel Ellsberg.  The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.  Bloomsbury, 2017.

The publisher’s description with Dick’s highlights:

Shortlisted for the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the dangers of America's Top Secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day.

Here, for the first time, former high-level defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg reveals his shocking firsthand account of America's nuclear program in the 1960s. From the remotest air bases in the Pacific Command, where he discovered that the authority to initiate use of nuclear weapons was widely delegated, to the secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower, which, if executed, would cause the near-extinction of humanity, Ellsberg shows that the legacy of this most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization--and its proposed renewal under the Trump administration--threatens our very survival. No other insider with high-level access has written so candidly of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, and nothing has fundamentally changed since that era.

Framed as a memoir--a chronicle of madness in which Ellsberg acknowledges participating--this gripping exposé reads like a thriller and offers feasible steps we can take to dismantle the existing "doomsday machine" and avoid nuclear catastrophe, returning Ellsberg to his role as whistle-blower. The Doomsday Machine is thus a real-life Dr. Strangelove story and an ultimately hopeful--and powerfully important--book about not just our country, but the future of the world.

Reviews

“The Doomsday Machine is being published at an alarmingly relevant moment, as North Korea is seeking the capability to target the United States with nuclear missiles, and an unpredictable president, Donald Trump, has countered with threats of 'fire and fury.'” –  New York Magazine

“A groundbreaking and nightmare-inducing account of how the whole mad system works.” –  Esquire

“One of the best books ever written on the subject--certainly the most honest and revealing account by an insider who plunged deep into the nuclear rabbit hole's mad logic and came out the other side.” –  Fred Kaplan, Slate

 “Ellsberg, the dauntless whistle-blower, has written a timely plea for a reassessment of a weapons program that he describes as 'institutionalized madness.'” –  Best Books of the Year 2017, The San Francisco Chronicle

“A passionate call for reducing the risk of total destruction . . . Ellsberg's effort to make vivid the genuine madness of the 'doomsday machine,' and the foolishness of betting our survival on mutually assured destruction, is both commendable and important.” –  Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review

Several of the hundreds of US NUCLEAR PEACE ORGANIZATIONS, of which OMNI is one: ICAN, NAPF, FAS, GZ, BAS, Peace Action

ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Won Nobel  Peace Prize

NAPF Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, alll-around opposition to Nuclear Weapons 

FAS Federation of American Scientists • www.fas.org
GZ Ground Zero, Monitoring the Tridents in Washington State and Georgia

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, creator of the Doomsday Clock

Peace Action

ICAN

 

 

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 

Sunflower Newsletter: Issue #251    June 2018

Rick Wayman, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation  via bounces.salsalabs.net  6-1-18 www.wagingpeace.org/sunflower-newsletter-june-2018	4:06 PM (2 hours ago)

CONTENTS

·  Perspectives o    Violating the Iran Deal: Playing with Nuclear Fire by David Krieger o    Men with Fragile Egos Should Not Have the World's Faith Placed in Them by Beatrice Fihn o    20 Years of Nuclear tests by India and Pakistan by Kumar Sundaram o    Gaza: Grief, Horror, Outrage, Remembering by Richard Falk ·  U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy o    President Trump Decides to Unilaterally Violate Iran Nuclear Deal o    June 12 Summit Between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un Is Back On ·  Nuclear Disarmament o    Three Nations Ratify Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in May ·  War and Peace o    International Delegation of Women Gather in South Korea to Advocate for Peace ·  Nuclear "Modernization" o    U.S. Expands Nuclear Arsenal While Demanding Others Disarm ·  Nuclear Insanity o    Air Force Nuclear Missile Guards Used LSD ·  Resources o    This Month in Nuclear Threat History o    The Devastating Legacy of Nuclear Testing in the Pacific o    Poet Climbs Runit Dome to Expose Radioactive Legacy ·  Foundation Activities o    Evening for Peace to Honor Current Nobel Peace Laureate o    Peace Literacy Spotlight: Canadian Educators and Students o    Letter in the Los Angeles Times o    30th Annual DC Days o    Disarmament Education Report Submitted to UN Secretary-General ·  www.wagingpeace.org/sunflower-newsletter-june-2018 David Krieger   MacKenzie Leger   Carol Warner    Rick Wayman

Federation of American Scientists • www.fas.org
The Nuclear Information Project 

Project Sections

Status of World Nuclear Forces
Profiles of Nuclear Countries
Nuclear Doctrine and Missions

 
Uranium Enrichment Methods
Gas Centrifuge Technology
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

The Nuclear Information Project covers nuclear weapons and arms control and the nuclear fuel cycle.

The project provides the general public and policy-makers with information and analysis on the status, number, and operation of nuclear weapons, the policies that guide their potential use and nuclear arms control. The project is, according to the Washington Post, "one of the most widely sourced agencies for nuclear warhead counts." The work is supported by generous grants from the Ploughshares Fund and New Land Foundation. Nuclear weapons data are based on official documents, testimonies and previously undisclosed information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as independent analysis of commercial satellite images.

The project reports on developments in the nuclear fuel cycle that are relevant to nuclear weapons proliferation. Both uranium enrichment for nuclear reactor fuel and separation of plutonium from spent reactor fuel can produce fissionable material for nuclear bombs. The project puts technical information into a nonproliferation context and looks at case studies by conducting independent calculations and analyses.

Get the Latest Project News

In the News (when others use our work)

Chronology of news coverage.

Publications

Chronology of project publications.

Featured External Nuclear Resources

The ALSOS Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Nuclear weapons and nuclear power have greatly influenced the world since 1945. This digital library maintained by our colleagues at Washington and Lee University provides a vetted, annotated bibliography of over 3,000 books, articles, films, CDs, and websites about a broad range of nuclear issues. Browse or Search ALSOS »

Federation of American Scientists • www.fas.org
1725 DeSales Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036-4413 • 202-546-3300

WEST COAST TRIDENT OPPOSITION

GROUND ZERO, Magazine of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (April 2018).

An excellent way to stay abreast of the Bomb Abolition movement.  Some contents:

Page 1 cartoon:  At left, Kim Jong-Un holding in one hand 3 nuclear missiles, at right Uncle Sam, sitting atop a massive arsenal of huge nuclear weapons, pointing at Kim and shouting “MADMAN!”  [Has that warped perceptive has been overcome?  NK must give up all its nucs, USA none?]

“The Centrality of Trident to the U.S. Nuclear Posture.”

“Ground Zero v. Navy—Final Report on the Lawsuit.”  GZ’s 5-year suit to prevent the expansion of the Trident Submarine base did not stop the wharf but won several First Amendment parts of the lawsuit; for example, forcing the Navy to reveal its records that proved it had lied.

“Mother’s Day Action with Musical Guests the Seattle Peace Chorus.”  Celebrating Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day for Peace.

“Twenty-Four Arrested at Nevada Nuclear Test Site.”  GZ participates in the annual protest. 

“Real bomb Threats vs. Fake Ones.”   A man at the gates of the Trident base claimed he was carrying explosives, but was not.  The real and continuing threat is the submarine base, where 38 percent of all US deployed nuclear warheads are located.

GZ owns its own permanent opposition Center near the submarines and sustains protests of many kinds.   With them and the other thousand peace centers in the US, Canada, and Mexico, the Peace Movement has a vibrant, life-enhancing voice.  –Dick

GROUND ZERO (July 2018), the newsletter of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, in permanent protest against the Trident submarines based at Bangor near Seattle. Contents include:

“Thirty-Nine Seattle Buses Will Carry Anti-Nuclear Message,” by Glen Milner.  The ad: “Puget Sound: Home to one-third of U.S. deployed nuclear weapons….Accept Responsibility.”  The US Navy operates a fleet of 14 ballistic missile submarines, of which 8 operate in the Pacific from their base at Kitsap-Bangor, and 6 operate in the Atlantic from their base at Kings Bay, in Georgia.  

“Bannering for Abolition” by Leonard Eiger.  Members of Ground Zero Center began their Summer of Resistance to nuclear weapons by holding banners over Interstate 5 in Seattle.

GZ is a foundation of opposition to nuclear weapons; I urge your support.

--Dick

EAST COAST TRIDENT ACTION

Veterans for Peace E-NEWS, JULY 26, 2018

From September 3 - 14,  DISARM TRIDENT activists will walk down the length of Georgia's coast from Savannah to the Kings Bay Submarine Base.  The walk will focus on bringing attention to the deadly nuclear-weapons housed at the Base and to continue to advocate for the U.S. to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The walk will begin with an orientation gathering on September 3 in Savannah, GA. On September 4, the group will begin walking and, following lunch, travel in vehicles to gather outside of the General Dynamics facility located in Savannah.

For more information visit their website

BAS BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS, July 27, 2018

Nuclear Risk Fulfilling the promise of the Trump-Kim Singapore summit James E. Goodby | Analysis Although the execution was lacking, the goals of the Singapore summit are realistic and desirable. Youth Group pushes the boundaries of disarmament Louis Reitmann | Voices of Tomorrow Are young people truly disinterested in nuclear issues?  The 2nd CTBT Science Diplomacy Symposium showed why that view is outdated. Special Issue: Missile Defense Why a space-based missile interceptor system is not viable Thomas G. Roberts | Magazine Two separate US plans for space missile defense, a sensor and a missile intercept layer, are not equally plausible. Free-access in the digital magazine. China’s attitudes toward missile defense and its limitation Li Bin | Magazine The missile defense limitations that might be of interest to China involve policy changes that the US has recently opposed. Free-access in the digital magazine.

August 3, 2018

Nuclear Risk A Hiroshima and Nagasaki collection Monday marks 73 years since the US dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima and, days later, Nagasaki. Here are some of the most important pieces the Bulletin has published on the implications of history's only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. Disarmament over deterrence: Nuclear lessons from Latin America.  Christopher Dunlap | Voices of Tomorrow A path to disarmament-based security is viable; Latin American and Caribbean visionaries gave us the road map at Tlatelolco a half-century ago. Disruptive Technologies North Korea's other weapons of mass destruction  Alexandra Bell, Abby Pokraka | Analysis The US needs to work with allies to assess the scope of North Korea's stockpile of biological and chemical weapons. Special Issue: Missile Defense Deterrence and its discontents Ulrich Kühn | Magazine Psychoanalytic metaphors are used to explain why the US doesn't (but should) have a long-term strategy for dealing with its most fundamental foreign policy challenges. Free-access in the digital magazine. Myths of automation and their implications for military procurement Robert R. Hoffman, Nadine Sarter, Matthew Johnson, John K. Hawley  Magazine One needn’t be a Luddite to recognize that “technophilic hubris” is causing problems in military procurement. Free-access in the digital magazine.

8-7-18 Supporter, Seventy-three years ago this week, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, on Hiroshima August 6th, 1945 and 3 days later on Nagasaki. We remain the only country ever to use nuclear weapons in war. Those bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed over 200,000 people, most of whom were innocent civilians. Yet that is exactly what these horrific weapons are designed to do -- indiscriminately kill an unconscionable number of innocent people. This is why nuclear weapons should never, ever be used again. Keeping that from happening requires strengthening the movement that can and will rid the earth of these horrible weapons. For sixty years, we’ve been doing just that, and your support today can help us continue until we win. Can you chip in today to help support building a bigger, stronger international movement against nuclear weapons? We achieved a major victory last year when 122 nations voted successfully to pass the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in the United Nations. Now, we need to increase the international pressure to ramp up the stigma on maintaining and threatening the use of these horrific weapons. Help grow our work today in continuing to build necessary international pressure against nuclear weapons. We also need to ramp up the pressure here at home. Today, the U.S., Russia, China and 6 other countries still possess over 15,000 nuclear weapons. Despite the U.S. obligation as a signatory to the Nonproliferation Treaty to pursue the reduction and elimination of the world’s nuclear arsenals, the Trump administration is moving full steam ahead with plans to spend $1.7 trillion dollars over the next three decades to “update” and “modernize” the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Not surprisingly, Russia and China are responding in kind, increasing the likelihood that nuclear weapons could be used again. It’s more important than ever to strengthen our international work to finally bring an end to these awful weapons. Supporter, you can help make this happen to with a gift to support incredibly important work. Thank you so much for everything you do to help us achieve a world free from the nuclear threat. Humbly for peace, Jon Rainwater Executive Director Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund P.S. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “Doomsday Clock,” a symbol of how close we are to humanity’s possible annihilation, the world currently sits at 2 minutes until midnight. We’ve not been this close to midnight since the height of the Cold War in 1953. It is more urgent than ever to push the clock hands back, and you are a critical a part of it. Please help today! P.P.S. Peace Action is nearly 100% funded by thoughtful individuals like yourself. Our strength is measured through the power of individuals coming together to push for the change they seek. If you can, please chip in today to help fuel our movement toward a world free from nuclear weapons. Connect with Us   California Office 2201 Broadway, Suite 321 Oakland, CA 94612 Maryland Office Montgomery Center 8630 Fenton Street, Suite 524 Silver Spring, MD 20910

OMNI’S HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE HAS BEEN ARKANSAS’ VOICE TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR BOMBS SINCE THE 1970S.

INDIA VS. PAKISTAN: ANOTHER URGENT REASON TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

PAKISTAN AND INDIA
While the global diplomatic circuits, international media and opinion makers are busy discussing whether North Korea would de-nuclearize itself, or if Iran would go nuclear, there seems to be a complete silence this month as the world’s only nuclear-armed neighbors with ongoing conflicts complete 20 years of their nuclear tests conducted since May 1998.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock statement this year mentioned the "simmering tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan." It refers to the "threats of nuclear warfare" hanging in the background "as Pakistan and India faced each other warily across the Line of Control in Kashmir," a reference to the surgical strikes by the Indian military across the LoC on September 29.  Sunflower Newsletter, June 20, 2018, NAPF.    To read more, click here.

Newsletter Contents: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance, Abolition Movement, United Nations Treaty Newsletter 2017.   http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2017/07/omni-hiroshima-nagasaki-nuclear-weapons.html

Three New Books Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and an Inside Look at the Pentagon 

Resistance Today:   ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING ABOLITION OF THE BOMBS

New Books

Nuclear Darkness:  Photographs  of Hiroshima Before and After the Bomb

Caren Stelson, Sachiko, a Nagasaki survivor’s story

Susan Southard, Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War 

Memoir by Paul H. Johnstone, Commentary by Diana Johnstone. From MAD to Madness:  Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning

History of Nuclear Weapons Continued:  2 Books and an Article
Schlosser, Command and Control
Zak, Almighty
Mother Jones

Nonviolence

END H-N/NUCLEAR ABOLITION NEWSLETTER 2018