Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 08:11:36 -0700
To: bluespin <bluespin@earthlink.net>
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: [greenaction] Nuke Activist (?) Detained by Cops

July 31st, 2003

To Whom It May Concern,

Seeing as Bruce K. Gagnon is undoubtedly a provocateur and infiltrator, and not a real activist at all, the story (shown below) of his almost missing his flight because he was questioned by police at the airport is kind of funny.

Having watched him underhandedly destroy the NO NUKES IN SPACE movement for years, I suspect this was just an attempt to make gullible, uninformed people think he's a real thorn in the government's side.  Actually, he's ON their side!  He has divided and destroyed the movement he purports to lead.  He has left a trail of disillusioned activists in his wake.

It should also be noted that if we want to live in a safe America, we each should feel obligated to report overheard conversations that scare us and make us think we might be hearing a terrorist.  If this incident really happened as he described, some citizens in Louisville were just doing their civic duty, and the cops had little choice but to investigate it once it was reported to them.

Personally, I suspect this story has been embellished, or even is largely fabricated.  In any event, it is clearly intended to induce sympathy for the man known to those who have been hurt by him as "The Gag Man".

Russell D. Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

Visit here for more information about BKG -- "A History Of Disinformation":
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0252.htm

Note: Dr. Helen Caldicott's newest book, "The New Nuclear Danger", is dedicated to BKG, showing just how thoroughly he has infiltrated and ruined this movement.  I shudder to think how much of Dr. Caldicott's time he has wasted, and how many wrong directions he has influenced her to go in, by achieving such comradery with so many of the top spokespeople/scientists for the movement.  It's a disgrace.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 09:42 PM 7/30/2003 , bluespin <bluespin@earthlink.net> wrote:

COORDINATOR TRIP REPORT - DETAINED IN AIRPORT BY COPS


On July 28 I was returning home after two days of speaking in Louisville,
KY.  While in the Louisville airport, after having just received by boarding
pass, I got a call on my cell phone from a reporter with the Columbus
Post-Dispatch (Ohio) who wanted my comments about the Global Network's
position on NASA's "Project Prometheus" - the nuclear rocket to Mars.  The
interview lasted 10 minutes at the most and in it I outlined these three key
points:

1)  The exponential escalation of launches of nuclear power into space
dramatically escalates the chance of an accident

2)  DoE has a long and sad track record of local contamination of workers
and communities building bombs.  Can we expect anything else as they now
ramp up the labs to produce more plutonium for nuclear space missions?

3)  NASA has announced that from now on all space missions will be "dual
use", meaning that each NASA mission will be both military and civilian.
Thus the development of nuclear reactor technology for space missions will
also become a military technology.

Immediately after finishing the interview I bought a newspaper and headed
for the airport security screening line and my boarding gate.  Just as I
entered the line two policemen asked if I was Bruce Gagnon.  They then
directly me to follow them to the other end of the airport and would only
say that I had been overhead making dangerous statements.  Amazingly they
knew my name and had a copy of my boarding pass.  All of this within 12
minutes after checking in at the airport.  As we walked to their office I
racked my brain to understand what I might have said and to whom!

Once inside the police inner sanctum I was questioned by three cops who
wanted by name, my ID, my reason for being in Louisville, where I had
spoken, to whom had I spoken.  Then they informed me that I had been
overheard talking about bombs and contamination.  They then searched by bag
and one officer found my copy of the constitution and asked if I always
carried it with me.  I told him "Yes, you never know when you might need
it."

It took me a moment to realize that someone must have heard my statements to
the reporter about the nuclear rocket.  So I explained the situation to
them.  Luckily I had remembered the name of the reporter and I gave that to
them as well.  One of the cops then called information and got the number
for the Columbus newspaper and called the reporter.  He verified that I had
just spoken to him about bombs and contamination and suggested they let me
go.  But the cops were not done.  They then ran a national ID check on me to
make sure I was not on some terrorist wanted list.

Then they let me go and I headed for my gate.  I still made my plane but as
I was boarding one of the cops stood by the door at  the gate to make sure I
got on the plane.  (Must have thought I'd slip out the back way or
something.)

The remarkable thing to me is just how paranoid everyone has become that
people are now reporting anyone that says any "key" word in airports, or
probably anywhere else.  I told the cops that I thought potential terrorists
were not likely to stand in the middle of an airport and talk on the phone
about bombs and contamination.

My trip to Louisville was sponsored by the local Fellowship of
Reconciliation chapter.  On Sunday, July 27 (my birthday) I spoke at the
Central Presbyterian Church about the militarization of space and then on
Monday at noon a different group heard me talk about the "Price of Endless
War" at a local restaurant.  Veteran activist Jean Edwards was the leading
organizer of the trip and I stayed in the home of retired Presbyterian
minister David Bos.

Just the week before David Bos has arranged for me to fly to Daytona Beach,
Florida to deliver two workshops at the annual conference of the National
Association of Ecumenical & Interreligious Staff.  This was an important
opportunity to present our message to religious leaders from throughout the
nation.  One person who attended one of my workshops, and added much to it,
was former Congressman Bob Edgar, now the General Secretary of the National
Council of Churches.

My Louisville airport experience underscored to me the dangers we face in
our nation today.  While we all are concerned about terrorist attacks, I am
frankly much more concerned about the loss of our civil liberties in the
name of protecting us from terrorism.  The constitution is a very fragile
document.  It is something we should all carry with us and fight to hold
onto.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(352) 871-7554 (Cell phone)
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com



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======================================================================
The above brought a swift reaction from Jim Riccio:

======================================================================

To: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Re: [greenaction] Nuke Activist (?) Detained by Cops

Russell,

Please remove me from your email list.
While I appreciate your dedication, I 'm tired of
the personal attacks on individuals you disagree with.

Keep on holdin their feet to the fire.
I just don't need to read about it.

Thanks,

Jim

Jim Riccio
Greenpeace
702 H Street NW #300
Washington, DC 20001
202-319-2487
202-462-4507

========================================================================

To which I responded:

========================================================================

To: "Jim Riccio" <jim.riccio@wdc.greenpeace.org>
Subject: Re: [greenaction] Nuke Activist (?) Detained by Cops GREENPEACE DROPS THE BALL AGAIN
Cc:

Mr. Riccio,

I am not making "personal attacks" on anybody. I'm only alerting the movement to various problems it has. You owe me an apology. I get attacked pretty regularly, it's true, and respond as best I can with the appropriate facts. But why do you take THAT out on me?

Greenpeace has had its share of infiltrators over the years -- more than it's share -- they've been a prime target of those types of people. Or hadn't YOU noticed?

Do YOU work with Gagnon? If you knew Gagnon like I know Gagnon, you wouldn't question my remarks or punish me for writing them. You'd simply be wary of the guy.

As for "sticking their feet to the fire", we're all in this together. The greatest Weapons of Mass Destruction are the 430 nuclear power plants around the world.

-- Russell

============================================================================

Matt Wald of the "Venerable" New York Times piped in next -- and the reporter becomes the news:

============================================================================

August 4th, 2003

Dear Readers,

Gee, I feel positively ganged-up on! Matt Wald, arrogant know-nothing nuke writer for the New York Times, follows-up Jim Riccio's correspondence with a request of his own! I guess he's a big fan of the one-two knock-'em-out punch.

Personally, I don't see how they can claim to print "all the news that's fit to print" if they refuse to allow themselves to have access to the sources!

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 10:42 AM 8/4/2003 , "Matthew L. Wald" <mattwald@nytimes.com> wrote:
Mr. Hoffman,
Once again, please take me off your mailing list.
--- Matt Wald

At 09:28 AM 8/4/2003 -0700, [Russell Hoffman] wrote:

August 4th, 2003

Dear Readers,

Arrogant Jim Riccio sure has a pair, doesn't he? Too bad he doesn't know how to use them properly! Beating up on little old me! What a wimp! What a shame! What a waste of effort!

Here's something from someone who can run rings around "Brave Riccio, defender of Gagnon".

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

=====================================================

At 04:48 PM 8/2/2003 , Jacksha1@aol.com wrote:

To whom it may concern:

I doubt that any emergency plan at any nuclear power plant in the USA is
workable, except for small releases of radiation that would be contained by the
designed system itself.

We keep speaking childless nonsense when we speak of emergency evacuation
plans that will work, especially from a succesful terrorists attack.

A massive meltdown at any nuclear power plant, especially one caused by a
terrorist attack, designed to breach the concrete containment vessel, is silly.
Believing that a terrorist attack against a nuclear power plant, similar to the
attack on the twin towers [is survivable] is like believing in Santa Clause. No
one within a several-mile radius will survive, period.

If the NRC or FEMA tells the citizens anything less they are lying (which is
what they do most of the time).

A breach of the containment vessel, along with a breach of the pressure
vessel of the reactor will cause a catastrophe of monumental proportion. We cannot
even conceive of such consequences.

I was the manager of Nuclear Criticality Safety at the Knolls Atomic Power
laboratory for 18 years, along with many other responsibilities. I also designed
the most widely used nuclear power plant in use by the US Navy today.

The evacuation plan at KAPL consisted of evacuating employees to the
cafeteria, a mere few feet away from any real accident. The purpose of this joke of a
plan was to ensure the employees that no real danger existed, which is what
they were told when they came to work at KAPL. And so the myth is still
perpetuated, and GE/DOE/Lockheed Martin keeps the [lie] a reality and their
"reputations" secure.

This is the same fairy tail that the DOE/GE/Lockheed Martin tells the
workers, contractors, Sailors, and perhaps worst of all the entire unsuspecting
public.

Unsuspecting citizens are now building $300,000 - $500,000 homes within a
stones throw of two nuclear power plants that lack even the rudimentary safety
features required on commercial power plants.

The results of an accident, at KAPL or any Commercial plant will, however,
matter little, if a saboteur lets lose with anything approaching the world trade
center disaster.

The American people better get their act(s) together and stop trusting the
clowns in FEMA, DOE or the NRC or in a Congress that believes that these
organizations know little, if anything, about nuclear power plant accidents or
evacuation plans or much else about nuclear power.

It should be noted that when Three Mile Island became a disaster (a wake-up
call might be appropriate -- but no one woke up), it was necessary for the "TMI
experts, State Agency experts, Federal Agency experts, ad nausea experts" to
call on KAPL contractor scientists and engineers to determine if a secondary
explosion would occur. Fortunately these contractor scientists and Engineers
knew enough to make the correct decisions.

I think the Governor of Pennsylvania got all the credit for solving the
problems. But that's typically what politicians do.

If Hillary Clinton wants to know something about what will happen at Indian
Point for any accident she can call on me or a few other real experts to give
her the straight answers, or maybe she doesn't want to know the truth either. I
know the Attorney General of New York doesn't want to know anything about the
subject. Why? Because NY State might lose a few jobs!

John P. Shannon
Nuclear Engineer/Nuclear Physicist
Former Manager of Nuclear Safety at KAPL

================================================

============================================================================

Jack Shannon summed it up thusly::

============================================================================

From: Jacksha1@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 12:29:24 EDT
Subject: Re: Please take me off your mailing list (from The New York Times' Matt Wald)
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

Russ:
Just a few more who don't want to hear the truth. Or chose to ignore the
truth.
Jack

Subject: Re: Response from Jim Riccio (unanswered)
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

Russ:
Guy has a lot of balls!
Jack

=============================================================================

Meanwhile, THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS was being passed around again, around August 6th, 2003:

=============================================================================

To: Bill Smirnow <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>,
"Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Cc: Human Rights Watch <hrwnyc@hrw.org>
Subject: Re: Graphic Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August 9

Dear Bill Smirnow and Russell Hoffman:
Your description of nuclear war is bound to be useful. I hope lots of
people will read it.
When I was in the nuclear business, I heard from a physicist about an
experiment called "Teasing the Dragon" which consisted of approaching the
critical point so closely that the two parts jumped apart, then settled
down without destroying the equipment. An experimenter, named Harry
Daghlian, made a mistake and killed himself with excessive radiation from
this experiment.
If you haven't seen a description of another, similar experiment at Los
Alamos, which in a similar manner killed another experimenter, named Louis
Slotin. This was kept secret until a Canadian writer, named Barbara Moon
got hold of it and published the story. One place you can read of this
starts on page 63 of "Nuclear Age", John May, Greenpeace. His horrible
death from radiation is described to some extent.
My impression is that if all people were aware of what radiation does,
including lung cancer from alpha radiation, they wouldn't want nuclear
devices of any kind.
I hope you will keep up your good work.
Sincerely,
Stan Thompson

==================================================================

Requests to reprint this author's materials were also received from the U.S. Government, a technical book publisher involved in hydraulics, and a French activist's group (thanks to Bill Smirnow):

==================================================================

To: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: MESSGAE FOR RUSSELL HOFFMAN Fw: [abolition-caucus] Graphic Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August 9
Cc:

August 13th, 2003

Hi Bill,

THANK YOU very much for forwarding the request shown below, and please convey to them that I am honored, and very happy to hear that they wish to translate the piece into French for their web site. They are welcome to do so, with the usual credits to Pamela Blockey-O'Brien and I. The name of the translator or translators should be added, as well, credited as "translators". A link back to where I have the "master" (original) version of the article posted would also be appreciated:

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm

(They should probably do the translation from that version, actually.)

Thanks for sending the piece out again. Several others did, as well.

All's well here -- hope things are okay with you, too. I'll probably be on the East Coast for a few days this fall (around mid-October). Hopefully we can meet?

Yours,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 03:51 PM 8/13/2003 , "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

Hi Russell,
The people below want me to
ask you if it's OK for them to use your article.
Hope all's well with you.

-Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: "acdn.france" <acdn.france@wanadoo.fr>
To: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 4:18 PM
Subject: Re: [abolition-caucus] Graphic
Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August
9

> Dear Friends,
>
> May we translate this statement in French and
put it on our website
> http://acdn.france.free.fr?
> Please, transfer our answer to the the author
for an agreement.
> Thanks.
>
> Jean-Marie Matagne, president of ACDN (Action
des Citoyens pour le
> désarmement Nucléaire/Action of Citizens for
Nuclear Disarmament)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
> To: "Human Rights Watch" <hrwnyc@hrw.org>; "Bill
Smirnow"
> <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 9:04 AM
> Subject: [abolition-caucus] Graphic Description
Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day
> On August 9
>
>
> >
> >

==================================================================

Our thanks to Dr. Carol Wolman, who also passed around the Graphic Description of Nuclear War:

==================================================================

Fri, 8 Aug 2003 08:18:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: "carol wolman" <cwolman@mcn.org>
To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@smtp01.adnc.com>
Subject: Fw: Graphic Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August 9
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 08:21:21 -0000

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Nichols
To: peacemakersBiblestudy@yahoogroups.com ; Carol Wolman
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 12:20 PM
Subject: Fw: Graphic Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August 9
Thanks, Bob. Peace, Carol

This is a good article. Mr. Hoffman is an expert on nuclear war and nuclear power plants. This is in case any of you need any reminding.

Thank you for your time and prayers.

Bob

-------Original Message-------

From: Bill Smirnow
Date: Friday, August 08, 2003 02:14:58 AM
To: Human Rights Watch; Bill Smirnow
Subject: Graphic Description Of Nuclear War- Nagasaki Day On August 9

http://www.mothersalert.org/nuclearwar.html

The Effects of Nuclear War
by Russell D. Hoffman

A year ago, India surprised the CIA -- and nearly
everyone else except, perhaps, Pakistan, who seems
to have been nearly ready -- by setting off
several underground nuclear explosions. Then
Pakistan, claiming self-defense, followed suit.
But what would actually happen if India and
Pakistan had a nuclear exchange?

Most people in India and in Pakistan (and in the
U.S.) probably do not know that as many as 9 out
of 10 people -- or more -- who die from a nuclear
blast, do not die in the explosion itself. Most
people probably think that if they die from a
nuclear blast, they will simply see a flash and
get quickly cooked.

Those within approximately a six square mile area
(for a 1 megaton blast) will indeed be close
enough to "ground zero" to be killed by the gamma
rays emitting from the blast itself. Ghostly
shadows of these people will be formed on any
concrete or stone that lies behind them, and they
will be no more. They literally won't know what
hit them, since they will be vaporized before the
electrical signals from their sense organs can
reach their brains.

Of the many victims of a nuclear war, these are
the luckiest ones, of course.

Outside the circle where people will be instantly
vaporized from the initial gamma radiation blast,
the light from the explosion (which is many times
hotter than the sun) is so bright that it will
immediately and permanently blind every living
thing, including farm animals (including cows,
sacred or otherwise), pets, birds while in flight
and not to mention peasants, Maharajah's, and
Government officials -- and soldiers, of course.
Whether their eyes are opened or closed. This
will happen for perhaps 10 miles around in every
direction (for a 1 megaton bomb) -- further for
those who happen to be looking towards the blast
at the moment of detonation. Even from fifty
miles away, a 1 megaton blast will be many times
brighter than the noonday sun. Those looking
directly at the blast will have a large spot
permanently burned into their retinas, where the
light receptor cells will have been destroyed.
The huge bright cloud being nearly instantly
formed in front of them (made in part from those
closer to the blast, who have already "become
death"), will be the last clear image these people
will see.

Most people who will die from the nuclear
explosion will not die in the initial gamma ray
burst, nor in the multi-spectral heat blast
(mostly X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths) which
will come about a tenth of a second after the
gamma burst. Nor will the pressure wave which
follows over the next few seconds do most of them
in, though it will cause bleeding from every
orifice. Nor even will most people be killed by
the momentary high winds which accompany the
pressure wave. These winds will reach velocities
of hundreds of miles an hour near the epicenter of
the blast, and will reach velocities of 70 miles
per hour as far as 6 miles from the blast (for a 1
megaton bomb). The high winds and flying debris
will cause shrapnel-type wounds and blunt-trauma
injuries.

Together, the pressure wave and the accompanying
winds will do in quite a few, and damage most of
the rest of the people (and animals, and
structures) in a huge circle -- perhaps hundreds
of square miles in area.

Later, these people will begin to suffer from
vomiting, skin rashes, and an intense unquenchable
thirst as their hair falls out in clumps. Their
skin will begin to peel off. This is because the
internal molecular structure of the living cells
within their bodies is breaking down, a result of
the disruptive effects of the high radiation dose
they received. All the animals will be similarly
suffering. Since they have already received the
dose, these effects will show up even if the
people are immediately evacuated from the area --
hardly likely, since everything around will be
destroyed and the country would be at war.

But this will not concern them at this time: Their
immediate threat after the gamma blast, heat
blast, pressure wave and sudden fierce wind (first
going in the direction of the pressure wave --
outwardly from the blast -- then a moment later, a
somewhat weaker wind in the opposite direction),
will be the firestorm which will quickly follow,
with its intense heat and hurricane-force winds,
all driving towards the center where the
radioactive mushroom-shaped cloud will be rising,
feeding it, enlarging it, and pushing it miles up
into the sky.

The cloud from a 1 megaton blast will reach nearly
10 miles across and equally high. Soon after
forming, it will turn white because of water
condensation around it and within it. In an hour
or so, it will have largely dissipated, which
means that its cargo of death can no longer be
tracked visually. People will need to be evacuated
from under the fallout, but they will have a hard
time knowing where to go. Only for the first day
or so will visible pieces of fallout appear on the
ground, such as marble-sized chunks of radioactive
debris and flea-sized dots of blackened particles.
After that the descending debris from the
radioactive cloud will become invisible and harder
to track; the fallout will only be detectible with
geiger counters carried by people in "moon suits".
But all the moon suits will already be in use in
the known affected area. Probably, no one will be
tracking the cloud. One U.S. test in the South
Pacific resulted in a cigar-shaped contamination
area 340 miles long and up to 60 miles wide. It
spread 20 miles *upwind* from the test site, and
320 miles downwind. Where exactly it goes all
depends on the winds and the rains at the time. It
is difficult to predict where the cloud will
travel before it happens, and it is likewise
difficult to track the cloud as it moves and
dissipates around the globe. While underground
testing is bad enough for the environment, a
single large above-ground explosion is likely to
result in measurable global increases of a whole
spectrum of health effects. India or Pakistan will
deny culpability for these deaths, of course. The
responsible nations, including my own, always do.

But the people who were affected by the blast
itself will not be worrying about the fallout just
yet.

A 1 megaton nuclear bomb creates a firestorm that
can cover 100 square miles. A 20 megaton blast's
firestorm can cover nearly 2500 square miles.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were small cities, and by
today's standards the bombs dropped on them were
small bombs.

The Allied firebombing of nearly 150 cities
during World War Two in Germany and Japan seldom
destroyed more than 25 square miles at a time, and
each of those raids required upwards of 400
planes, and thousands of crewmembers going into
harm's way. It was not done lightly. And, they did
not leave a lingering legacy of lethal radioactive
contamination.

In the span of a lunch hour, one multi-warhead
nuclear missile can destroy more cities than all
the incendiary raids in history, and the only
thing the combatant needs to do to carry off such
a horror is to sit in air-conditioned comfort
hundreds or even thousands of miles away, and push
a button. He would barely have to interrupt his
lunch. With automation, he wouldn't even have to
do that! The perpetrator of this crime against
humanity may never have seen his adversary. He
only needs to be good at following the simplest of
orders. A robot could do it. One would think, that
ONLY a robot WOULD do it.

Nuclear war is never anything less than genocide.

The developing firestorm is what the survivors of
the initial blast will be worrying about -- if
they can think straight at all. Many will have
become instantly "shell-shocked" -- incapacitated
and unable to proceed. Many will simply go mad.
Perhaps they are among the "lucky" ones, as well.

The firestorm produces hurricane-force winds in a
matter of minutes. The fire burns so hot that the
asphalt in the streets begins to melt and then
burn, even as people are trying to run across it,
literally melting into the pavement themselves as
they run. Victims, on fire, jump into rivers, only
to catch fire again when they surface for air. Yet
it is hard to see even these pitiable souls as the
least lucky ones in a nuclear attack.
For the survivors of the initial blast who do not
then die in the firestorm that follows, many will
die painfully over the next few weeks, often after
a brief, hopeful period where they appear to be
getting better. It might begin as a tingling
sensation on the skin, or an itching, which starts
shortly after the blast. These symptoms are signs
that the body is starting to break down
internally, at the molecular level. The insides of
those who get a severe dose of gamma radiation,
but manage to survive the other traumas, whose
organs had once been well defined as lungs, liver,
heart, intestines, etc., begin to resemble an
undefined mass of bloody pulp. Within days, or
perhaps weeks, the victim, usually bleeding
painfully from every hole and pore in their body,
at last dies and receives their final mercy.

But this too will probably not be how most
victims of a nuclear attack will die. A
significant percentage, probably most, of the
people who die from a nuclear attack will die much
later, from the widespread release of radioactive
material into the environment. These deaths will
occur all over the world, for centuries to come.
Scattered deaths, and pockets of higher mortality
rates, will continue from cancer, leukemia, and
other health effects, especially genetic damage to
succeeding generations.

Nuclear weapons do not recognize the end of a war,
or signed peace treaties, or even the deaths of
all the combatants. They simply keep on killing a
percentage of whoever happens to inhale or ingest
their deadly byproducts.

Some deaths will occur hundreds and even thousands
of miles away, because low levels of ionizing
radiation are capable of causing the full spectrum
of health effects, albeit at a lower rate within
the population. Not to mention the radioactive
runoff from the rivers and streams that flow
through the blast area and the area under the
radioactive mushroom cloud's drift. It may carry
its deadly cargo for thousands of miles, raining a
fallout of death only on some cities, and not on
others. It will land upon nations which had not
been involved in any way in India's dispute with
Pakistan. These nations will be mighty hurt and
mighty upset.

Nuclear weapons do not recognize international
borders.

Finally, an atmospheric blast of a nuclear
"device" creates an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse)
which can be as large as Pakistan or even India --
perhaps even larger than India and Pakistan
together. The higher the altitude of the blast,
the bigger the circle of damage will be from the
EMP. This is a very serious concern for those of
us in the high-tech industries, such as myself.

The Electro-Magnetic Pulse will electrify all
sorts of metallic structures that are not normally
electrified except by the occasional short circuit
or lightening strike. This will be a lot like the
whole country getting struck by lightening all at
the same time.
As computer chips make better and better use of
"real estate", using more and more delicate
electronic circuits, the more tightly-packed
transistors, capacitors, diodes and resistors
become more and more vulnerable to the EMP which
will be carried into the chips via the connecting
wires. The Electro-Magnetic Pulse is one of the
reasons above-ground testing was stopped. (The
other reason was that it became impossible to deny
that the radiation dispersed by the tests was
killing people.)

Pacemakers, for example, may stop working because
of the "hit" from the EMP. It will be quite
something to see people in a thousand mile radius
of the epicenter of the blast (or further) who are
using pacemakers, suddenly drop dead, and all the
computers permanently go down and all the lights
go out, all at the same time. And commercial and
private aircraft will drop out of the sky, since
their sensitive electronics and fly-by-wire
systems are not very well shielded from the EMP.
These planes will then not be available for
evacuation purposes, nor will they be available to
air-drop food, water, morphine and cyanide, all of
which will be in great demand throughout the area.

A year ago people were dancing in the streets
over this in both India and Pakistan. Why?

Home plumbing systems and most other plumbing
systems are good examples of large metallic
structures that will suddenly become electrified,
destroying the motors, gauges, electronics, etc.
which are attached to the plumbing systems. More
and more pumping equipment is computer controlled
nowadays for efficiency. Imbedded controllers are
becoming prevalent but as they do, the potential
damage from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse increases
dramatically.

Train tracks will also carry the charge, as well
as telephone wiring. All these things will have a
nearly simultaneous surge of energy sent through
them, igniting gas containers such as fuel storage
tanks, propane tanks, and so on. Whatever doesn't
blow up will at least stop working.

My country has lived under the Russian and Chinese
threat of nuclear war for many decades now, and it
is not a pleasant thought. This is nothing to
dance about. There is no benefit to having, or
using, nuclear weapons.

I think the world would be a better place if we
all stopped and said, "I will not be a part of
this. I do not need these weapons, for I would
never commit this sin against my own children, nor
against my neighbor's children, nor against my
enemy's children, nor even against my enemy. I
choose not to be a part of this madness."

There is a greater battle mankind must fight than
against each other. Humanity's fight right now, is
for humanity's general survival despite depleted
and poorly used resources, environmental
degradation (there is none greater than that from
a nuclear explosion), dwindling effectiveness of
antibiotics and other wonder drugs, an uneven
distribution of available food, knowledge and
wealth, and against weapons of mass destruction.

America had three excuses for her previous use of
nuclear weapons in war, which we plead every time
it is mentioned. First, we claim that we did not
understand back then (over 50 years ago) all the
ways nuclear weapons damage the Earth and her
living inhabitants. Second, we claim that there
was a war going on, and that had we not used these
weapons, perhaps a million soldiers would have
died invading Japan instead. But this second
excuse is weakened by the knowledge that Japan was
at that time very near collapse anyway. She was
without an air defense, a sea defense, she did not
have advanced radar, she had lost all her good
pilots, millions of soldiers were either dead,
wounded, captured, or uselessly stuck on nameless
islands in the middle of the Pacific, and towns in
her homeland was being firebombed on almost a
nightly basis.
Our third excuse was that both Japan (and
definitely Germany) were building their own
nuclear weapons, and DEFINITELY would have used
them against us had they succeeded in developing
"the bomb" before the war ended. The war could not
go on forever. We were, indeed, running out of
time.

Perhaps these excuses are insufficient, but India
and Pakistan hasn't even got them. India can, and
therefore should, along with Pakistan, renounce
nuclear weapons and the nuclear option. Perhaps
her populace does not understand the full nature
of the threat of nuclear weapons, and thus they
are dancing in the streets, but I hope that her
leaders do. However, I strongly suspect most of
them are unaware of the things I have written
about in this newsletter. Perhaps you, dear
reader, will help me to educate them in this
matter.

The author is grateful for the assistance of
Pamela Blockey-O'Brien and others in the research
and preparation of this statement.

.

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Authorship notes:

==============================================================================

This document has been gathered together and posted online by Russell Hoffman August 14th, 2003, for printing and presentation to a New York Times reporter later today. The reporter hopefully would be able to answer the points raised in the previous document which Matt Wald did not respond to:

Prior correspondence with The New York Time's Matt Wald

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/2003/nytmatthewwald.htm

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