OMNI: WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #105, DECEMBER 21, 2022

 

 

105.    WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #105, DECEMBER 21, 2022

NUCLEAR WAR Prevention and Justice

Ron Ridenour. Preventing the Bomb.  CovertAction Magazine.
Beatrice Fihn.  ICAN: ICC, Nuclear Weapons War Crimes.
Union of Concerned Scientists.  Urge Congress cosponsor a resolution supporting nuclear justice in
    the Marshall Islands.
Robin Andersen.  FAIR.  Corporate Media and the Ultimate Insanity.
Gerry Sloan.  “UnAmerican Activities.”

 

 

 

 

 

NUCLEAR WEAPONS Glance Back to Building the Bomb Can An American Scientist Who Smuggled Critical Nuclear Secrets to the Russians After World War II Be Considered a “Good Guy”? New Film Says Yes. CovertAction Magazine via gmail.mcsv.net   12-2-22 11:16 AM (2 hours ago)     Can An American Scientist Who Smuggled Critical Nuclear Secrets to the Russians After World War II Be Considered a “Good Guy”? New Film Says Yes. By Ron Ridenour. CovertAction Magazine.   Dec 02, 2022 11:51 am   Controversial New Documentary Reveals How A Teenage Army Physicist Named Ted Hall Saved The Russian People From A Treacherous U.S. Sneak Attack In 1950-51—And May Well Have Prevented A Global Nuclear Holocaust.  2019 PBS documentary series repeated August 2022.  The provocative documentary “A Compassionate Spy” tells the amazing but almost unknown story of a “near-genius” 16 year-old Harvard junior physics major who was drafted to help develop an atom bomb at America’s ultra-secret Manhattan Project. At 18, after graduating from Harvard, Ted was the youngest physicist to work on the atomic bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He worked with uranium and the implosion system for the plutonium bomb used in the Trinity test on July 16, 1945, one month before that bomb type killed tens of thousands of civilians at Nagasaki. Between the bombings at Hiroshima, August 6, and Nagasaki, August 9, somewhere around 200,000 civilians were killed, and a similar number died within some months afterwards from radiation sickness and injuries. The film also illustrates why and how Ted shared his knowledge with the Soviets: to prevent a post-war U.S. perhaps heading toward fascism and/or world domination intoxicated by having a nuclear monopoly. He foresaw correctly because, by 1946, Wall Street bankers and weapons industrialists had convinced President Harry Truman, as the film shows, to produce 400 more atomic bombs to attack the Soviet Union in 1950-51, kill millions of its people, and take over its huge land and natural resources. […] Read in browser » Accountability for grave international crimes Beatrice Fihn, ICAN <admin@icanw.org> 12-6-22 8:55 AM (14 minutes ago)   Hi Dick -- Today, I’m writing to you from The Hague, where ICAN is attending the Assembly of States Parties of the Rome Statute, the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court (ICC), meeting with governments and delivering a statement to all states parties. The ICC is a key tool to ensure accountability for grave international crimes and provide an international system of justice. The ICC is where those who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity are prosecuted, and this body is very relevant for preventing the use of nuclear weapons. Given their immense and indiscriminate destructive power and their wide-ranging catastrophic humanitarian consequences, the use of nuclear weapons would constitute a war crime and possibly a crime against humanity as defined under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute. But the nuclear armed states and nuclear allied states try to obscure this fact by hiding behind theoretical conversations about deterrence, abstract defence policies, and nuclear sharing agreements. But any government who participates in the use of nuclear weapons would be responsible for committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, and the individuals responsible for such actions would be held responsible in The Hague eventually. That’s why ICAN is here, to make sure we send a strong message to all governments and their political and military leaders – threatening to commit war crimes is unacceptable and illegal and those responsible will be held accountable. This is a key part of our strategy to delegitimize nuclear deterrence and prevent countries from using nuclear weapons by raising the threshold and cost.  International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Read more about our work at ICC today here >> “Act Now for Nuclear Justice in the Marshall Islands.” UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS.  “US NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING: WHO ORDERED THEM PERFORMED? GIVE US THEIR NAMES.  WE CAN: Demand justice for the people of the world. Dear Dick, 10-8-22 Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. With the advances in power of the bombs over time, this averages out to the equivalent of dropping one Hiroshima-sized bomb a day for 20 years. These nuclear tests vaporized some islands completely, spread radioactive contamination across the remaining islands, and left many permanently uninhabitable. Marshallese people continue to suffer from cancers and other long-term health effects caused by radiation exposure. Please urge your members of Congress to cosponsor a resolution supporting nuclear justice in the Marshall Islands. Top of Form Take future action with a single click.  Log in or Sign up for FastAction ucsusa.org/a/2022-act-now-nuclear-justice-marshall-islands?contactdata=PVTPaV2oytaT8P3tQ%2bNGu1eVMcSvLGcImQ8P%2b0GFieLIX5cS%2bkOFYhsjl8qkYQHaQXQlRVuHr5Rx431z9YY0WNufuroK2itYlVAaKYaVrHovA1nNNxtRcYB6%2btr0%2fN3ttzVx7fP6327oJ6AMtlR5c%2fQCGbsZiv2OsiT2aWqBnjqeR8%2f%2bHrZQHyNjLXMYkFB%2fPWspD8iVxW5%2b5gCn8pXaCXQvO5XclzU8jstBNRXXBeTVJfjQjagNguFO4vfXKFws&utm_campaign=email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email&emci=486373d8-c244-ed11-b495-002248258d38&emdi=94e773ba-1547-ed11-b495-002248258d38&ceid=937898 Bottom of Form

The ultimate insanity—nuclear Armageddon.

NATO Narratives And Corporate Media Are Leading To 'Doorstep Of Doom'

By Robin Andersen, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR, Extra!). Popular Resistance.org (12-6-22).    A popular cartoon aptly expresses the political angst provoked by media pundits today as they chatter on about nuclear war: Two people, both a little hunched over, burdened with the world, are walking down a city street. The woman says to the man, “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” As we slide closer to what was once considered the ultimate insanity—nuclear Armageddon—corporate media seem to be egging on reckless leaders as they make thinly veiled threats across an imaginary nuclear line.  -more-

 

POETS INTO THE BREACH

UNAMERICAN ACTIVITIES

(for Peter Carroll)  by Gerald Sloan (2022)

 

The chances of writing a successful

political poem are slim to non-existent,

but we keep rolling the boulder uphill

while the raven perched on our shoulder

keeps croaking like Bertolt Brecht:

"Why were their poets silent?"

 

Because we're the Forlorn Hope,

idealistic volunteers to be first

through the thermo-nuclear breach

since weapons of mass destruction

place notions of victory out of reach,

our leaders playing high-stakes chicken,

the absurdity of their rhetoric

enough to make a maggot sicken.

 

GRETA
“Hope does not come from words.  Hope comes only from action.   We can act, but we don’t have time to wait.”  (Why are we waiting?)