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Who Will Disarm America?
an article by Tara Dorabji
On Veteran's Day, November 11, 2002, two hundred people
formed civilian weapons inspection teams including representatives from
community, veterans and student groups to deliver a notice of intent to
inspect Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a facility located in
California that is involved in the design, development and testing of
nuclear weapons.
The six-page letter quotes directly from United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraq, adopted November 8,
2002, demanding, "immediate, unimpeded unconditional, and unrestricted
access to any and all, including underground, areas, facilities,
buildings, equipment, records, and means of transport," at Livermore
nuclear weapons Lab.
Representatives from California Peace
Action, Tri-Valley CAREs, Western States Legal Foundation and Veterans
for Peace displayed evidence of the Lab's involvement in clandestine
activities related to the research and development of weapons of mass
destruction, including nuclear and biological weapons.
"We are
here demanding an end to all weapons of mass destruction, whether
developed in the suburbs by University of California scientists, or in
Iraq,"; stated Tara Dorabji, Outreach Coordinator for Tri-Valley CAREs.
"In
light of the Security Council's vote in favor of sending weapons
inspectors back to Iraq, we seek to hold our country to the same
standard,"; declared Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western
States Legal Foundation. The letter of intent to inspect, was accepted
by David Schwoegler, spokesperson for the Lab, ensured it would be
delivered to the Lab Director, Michael Anastasio. He did not respond to
the group's request for inspection, but told the Tri-Valley Times, "We
just don't let people into special areas with nuclear materials."
Students
from four different University of California campuses demanded that the
University of California Regents, who manage the nation's two primary
nuclear weapons labs, support ongoing inspections of Lawrence Livermore
and Los Alamos National Laboratories. Inspections would verify the
status and cessation of research and development activities involving
nuclear and biological weapons.
"The Regents have a
responsibility to the student community to admit weapons inspectors and
adhere to international laws, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty," stated Valerie Kao student at UC Berkeley. "However, it will
take a strong student movement to get the Regents to comply with
international law and pursue disarmament in the United States,"
Kao
and other students are part of a coalition to demilitarize the
University of California and demand that the UC Regents uphold
international law and actively work to disarm the weapons labs. The
coalition brought their demands to the UC Regents on March 20, 2003 and
look forward to a response from them by April 21. For more information
and to get involved: Trivalleycares, Antiwarnetwork.
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
Shall America be held to the same standards as Iraq?
If so, what more can be done about it?
As a reader, you are invited to join in the discussion of
this article based on any of the above question(s): just click on the
question, read the previous comments and add a new reply. You may also
enter a new discussion topic on this article - see bottom of this page.
Thematic forum(s) in which this article is being discussed:
MARCHES AND PROTESTS
Latest reader comment:
With
regard to the question of Who Will Disarm America, did readers see the
Bill Moyers show last week with guest Franklin Spinney recently retired
from the Pentagon? He used a phrase I had never heard before: the
military-industrial-congressional complex. And he explained how
congressional representatives are constantly bought off by the defense
industry on the excuse of providing jobs for their congressional
districts, not to mention big political campaign contributions.
Some of this is on the PBS page for the Moyers programme.
It
sounds like that we have to begin by disarming the US Congress if we
are to get out of the terrible situation that is described by
Bronrose1951 in the comment before this one.
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