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| The day I arrived in Reading, Pennsylvania, July 11, I received an email that Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, had passed. He had been dealing with the effects of cancer. I feel blessed to have been associated with Corbin and able to participate in many events where he was present, inlcuding actions at the test site, in Skull Valley, and at his healing center,Poo-ah-bah, at his home in California. His sunrise ceremonies were healing, his talks provided wisdom and knowledge, his words engraved inspiration. He will be sorely missed.   | |
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| Thank goodness we got it stopped. The people do have the power. Sometimes Davey wins. ------------------------------ Friday, June 29, 2007 Experts: Divine Strake 'Mushroom Cloud' Could Have Sickened Many By KEN RITTER Associated Press Writer June 28th, 2007 LAS VEGAS (AP) - A non-nuclear explosive test planned by the government could have spread lethal radioactive particles across the Nevada desert and beyond had it not been canceled, experts testified Wednesday. "A new generation of 'downwinders' would have been created, with cancers and birth defects," said Robert Hager, a Reno lawyer who summoned witnesses to try to drive a stake through any future plans for the "Divine Strake" test at the Nevada Test Site 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas. | |
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| The Desert Greens Green Party of Utah got some media attention today, in repsonse to Desert Greens, Green Party of Utah Celebrate Cancellation of Divine Strake Test and The Desert Greens, Green Party of Utah applauds Governor Huntsman’s efforts
to support both Utah farmers and the development of renewable energy in Utah: Red-letter week buoys Utah Greens By Lee Benson Deseret Morning News Eileen McCabe is trying hard. She really is. But it's obvious she hasn't had much practice at this sort of thing. I'm talking about celebrating. Eileen is a card-carrying member of the Green Party, one of two people in Utah assigned as a delegate to the national party, and she and her Green peers have just gone through one terrific week. First there was the announcement from the federal government that it was abandoning its plans to detonate the Divine Strake explosion upwind in Nevada — something the Desert Greens, which is what Green Party members in Utah call themselves, have been laboriously campaigning for. Next there was Sunday night's Academy Awards, where Al Gore's documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars. And finally, as a kind of organic cherry on top, there was Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's announcement this week of his support for Utah farmers and the development of renewable energy in Utah. Right now, it sure is great to be green. Eileen knows this, and as she takes a break from her day job in Murray for a short interview with the media, meaning me, she says so with an emphatically redundant, "Oh it's great, it's great." But that's it. There are no back flips, no gushing speeches, no Toyota hybrid jumps, no plans for a big victory bash. The best Eileen can do is speculate that when she and her fellow Greens next get together in person — after Thursday's regular anti-war vigil in front of the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake perhaps — they might stop long enough for a toast with union-made beer. "We're really into union-made beer," she explains. "The only one I know of is Pabst Blue Ribbon, so we'll probably get together with some Pabst Blue Ribbon and toss back a few." But beyond that, no plans other than to keep on keeping on. "Honestly, we're not used to this," she says, meaning the winning. Then she quickly adds, "And the battle might be over, but the war isn't." "An Inconvenient Truth" may have won an Oscar, but lots of people are still driving SUVs. Divine Strake may have been cancelled, but the federal nuclear program is still going strong. And then there's that situation in Iraq. "If they cancelled the (nuclear) program and ended the war in Iraq and didn't start one with Iran," says Eileen, "then maybe we'd take the week off." And Pabst Blue Ribbon wouldn't know what hit it. Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527. | |
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| BE SURE TO WATCH THIS STUNNING VIDEO and account of delivery of email comments that overloaded the government's computers so channel 4 decided to deliver them. Watch and listen to the resistance they confronted and the statement by channel 4. Channel 4, KUDOS!! Re: Divine Strake THIS IS PERHAPS THE GUTSIEST, MOST DARING, BRAVE THING ANYONE IN THE MEDIA HAS EVER DONE FOR DIVINE STRAKE. Go to http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoID=59263or www.abc4.com and click on the video for the story ' ABC 4 hand delivers viewers comments to the Department of Energy in Las Vegas ' that includes a moving commentary from Terry Wood, a 40-year veteran journalist. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG. SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. STOPDIVINESTRAKE.COM IS GETTING HUNDREDS OF HITS PER HOUR FROM SALT LAKE CITIZENS WHO ARE REACTING TO THIS AMAZING PIECE OF JOURNALISM. VIEW THE NEWS SEGMENT IN ENTIRETY AND PASS ALONG WIDELY. **CANCEL** THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON WESTERN SHOSHONE LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION! The video may not work best with Firefox; if so, try Internet explorer. Andrew at StopDivineStrake.com ( Read more... ) | |
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| Tonight is the Governor of Utah's Public Hearing on the Divine Strake Test: Utah State Capitol, West Building, Room 135 (Main Floor, NW)
450 N. State Street, 5:30 – 8:30 PM
The Divine Strake experiment is proposed by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevada Site Office (NNSA/NSO) and outlined in their “Draft December 2006 Revised Environmental Assessment, for the Large-Scale, Open-Air Explosive Detonation Divine Strake at the Nevada Test Site.”
Governor Huntsman will make introductory remarks at the Salt Lake City hearing and January 24th and a court reporter will record all public comments at both meetings. The Governor will include a transcript of the hearings in his comment letter to the NNSA/NSO opposing the Divine Strake experiment.
Dianne Nielson, (801) 536-4402
Executive Director, DEQ
Donna Spangler, (801) 536-4484
Public Information Officer, DEQPom Poms Not Bomb Bombs plans to make an appearance as folks arrive for the hearing.
**CANCEL** THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON WESTERN SHOSHONE LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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| Last night was the Salt Lake session sponsored by the feds on the Divine Strake Test at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. I stood outside with a few others with protest signs and handed out literature. As soon as we arrived we were approached by hotel security and told we couldn't be there with our signs. We promptly told him we could be on the sidewalk because it is public property. He tried to tell us we need a license to do that, to which Tom replied: (stepping on hotel sidewalk block) This is Grand America. (stepping on public sidewalk) This is America, land of the free where we have the right to exercise our freedom of expression."That shut him up. We took turns going inside, although I chose to stay outside the whole time. Everyone I talked to going in and out was opposed to the test. One man inside caused an uproar when had yelled out for those opposed to the test to say so (to which the entire room did). He was escorted out (go Kevin Donahue!). We all were interviewed by the media. Tom's quote got into the Deseret News (link to article below): "My primary concern is for the well-being of life on this planet," said Tom King, Salt Lake City. Besides damage from radioactive isotopes at the test site, he said, he is worried about the government's intentions.
"They want to see what a little nuke will do to underground facilities," King said.The governor has set dates for hearings: Governor sets Divine Strake hearingsArticles in today's news about the meeting: Divine Strake session criticizedDivine Strake visitors frustrated'Divine Strake' meeting draws small but boisterous crowdMeeting Regarding Explosion Draws Big CrowdDivine Strake Hearing Draws Hundreds   | |
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| Next week there will be National Nuclear Security Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency "public hearings" on the Divine Strake Test in Nevada and Utah (schedule below) - only they aren't really "hearings" but, rather, "poster shows". While written comments will be accepted, the public will not be permitted to make public comment at these "hearings". The Stop the Divine Strake Coalition, of which I am a member, brainstormed last week on how the public would be able to vocally voice comments on the DS Test. We decided that organizing and holding our own hearings was necessary and have proceeded to organize them. We plan to videotape the hearings and send them to the DTRA. One of the coalition members contacted Utah Governor Huntsman's office to see if he would agree to hold a public hearing. He agreed. Today's Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News have articles on the Governor's acceptance of the concept of holding a hearing: Guv wants Utah to have a say
State will hold its own public hearings to allow residents to express Divine Strake concernsHuntsman orders 2 hearings on 'Strake'Schedule of next week's Federal Government "hearings": Tuesday, January 9th, 6:30 pm - Cashman Center - Las Vegas, NV -
for more info call Nevada Desert Experience (702) 646-4814 or Citizen
Alert (702) 796-5662
Wednesday, January 10th, 6:30 pm - Energy Solutions Arena - Salt
Lake City, UT - for more info call HEAL Utah (801) 355-5055
Thursday, January 11th, 6:30 pm - Dixie Center - St. George, UT
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the National Nuclear Security Agency will also accept comments on the environmental assessment through Feb. 7. They should be mailed to NNSA/NSO, Divine Strake EA Comments, P.O. Box 98518, Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518, or e-mailed to divinestrake@nv.doe.gov or faxed to 702-295-0625.
CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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| Divine Strake for ThanksgivingWhen you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this week, it may be a good occasion to contemplate how your Thanksgiving meal may play out next year. Close your eyes and imagine roast-turkey rubbed with butter and iridescent sage. Piping hot from the kitchen comes, oh my, grandma's savory steamed topsoil with pureed plutonium and americium. Yum! Smell the lemon-poached chlorine. Or the tarragon-mustard phosgene! "Please pass the blue-cheese cesium-137 salad." "Do you want more of the green beans with mushrooms, cream and strontium-90?" "Is that cranberry cobalt-60 compote?" "There's no slow-sautéed europium-155 and turnips left. I didn't get any!"
Interrupting this cacophony of sights and smells, Uncle Bob lets out another violent cough. "You should have a doctor look at that cough of yours," nudges Aunt Mildred as she reaches for the spinach and neptunium-237 stuffing. "I did," replies Uncle Bob, munching on an alpha-emitting onion-herb crescent roll. "And?" inquires Bob's daughter, Meredith. "It's...it's my thyroid...I...ugh...Jeez. The doctor said it might be cancer." Spoonfuls of cranberry sauce crash onto china plates. Forkfuls of half-eaten sweet potatoes slowly descend from salivating mouths. Diamond-cut goblets of red wine retreat to their place settings. Seated at the head of the table, grandma begins a silent prayer.
Sometime between this year's Thanksgiving and gobble-fest 2007, turkey feed and cranberries, mushrooms and salads, and ginger and sage will be growing in soils with a few added 'nutrients': radioactivity from the Divine Strake test. The Pentagon agency in charge of the non-nuclear test recently admitted that the massive explosion planned for mid-2007 at the Nevada Test Site will expose downwinders to radioisotopes from contaminated soils at the test's ground-zero. Their contention is that the exposure to downwinders will be, at worst, the equivalent to a mere fraction of one chest x-ray. That is probably true, if no one eats or breathes. The dust cloud formed from Divine Strake would carry alpha- and beta-emitting particles that, if inhaled or ingested, would make you wish you could exchange that internal radiation exposure, which can lead to cancer, auto-immune disease or genetic damage, for one-hundred X-rays. The Pentagon also forgot to mention that the 700-ton chemical explosion will create tons of carcinogenic gasses that, along with the radioactive dust, could get picked up by the jet stream and lightly dust wieners at hot dog stands in New York or Chicago.
So, when you reach for the spinach and artichoke stuffing this year, be thankful. Be thankful as you munch on your radiation-free dinner roll that you still have a chance to learn about the alphas, betas, and gammas of radiation, inform your friends, and urge your elected leaders in Washington to ensure that Divine Strake never happens, not next year, not with a different name, and not ever. Mr. Kishner is a member of the Stop Divine Strake Coalition and founder of www.StopDivineStrake.com. CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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| I participated in a conference call today with the Stop the Divine Strake Coalition today. The Coalition is strategizing a variety of actions to implement. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: CHRIS GALLEGOS NOVEMBER 15, 2006 (202) 224-7082 DOMENICI: PENTAGON TO FOREGO ³DIVINE STRAKE² TESTS AT WSMR WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, today reported that the Defense Department has decided that it will not conduct conventional Divine Strake ³bunker busting² tests at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. Domenici was informed of the decision today by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Pentagon organization that was considering the possibility of moving Divine Strake testing to New Mexico because of opposition to the testing in Nevada. DTRA indicated to Domenici that the testing will remain at the Nevada Test Site and not be moved elsewhere. ³I believe the Pentagon has made a good decision. While I look forward to full utilization of our assets at WSMR, I understand that keeping these tests in Nevada is the best choice from a technical perspective,² Domenici said. ³Moving the test to White Sands would have taken years and delayed development of an ability to predict damage to deeply buried targets like tunnels and bunker busters. Both are increasingly being used by our potential adversaries,² he continued. DTRA prefers the NTS, a DOE National Nuclear Security Administration facility, for Divine Strake testing. NTS has been used for many low-yield tunnel characterization tests and is already in the process of updating an environmental assessment related to possible high-yield Divine Strake tests. Divine Strake testing could occur in FY2007. Choosing WSMR would have required a full environmental impact statement which could have taken several years. Domenici supported a $1.95 million appropriation in the FY2007 Defense Appropriations Act to develop a non-nuclear, deep-penetrating munition. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Domenici elected to allow the Defense Department to focus on conventional bunker busting weapons and discontinue funding for the NNSA-led Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) project.
CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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| Dear Friends, While the Divine Strake Test has been **postponed indefinitely,** it has not been canceled. There is now talk of moving the test to a privately owned limestone quarry in Southwestern Indiana, or to Los Alamos in New Mexico. The only sure way to cancel this test is to cut off its funding. These funds currently paid out to profiteering companies such as Bechtel, would be much better spent cleaning up sites contaminated by nuclear and other weapons testing. We call upon peace and disarmament activists to pressure their congressional delegations to rescind the funding for Divine Strake, and allocate the funds for cleanup of weapons contamination. On our Alert Page, http://www.shundahai.org/action_alerts.htm we have posted a pair of "Stop Payment" graphics for you to use in actions at congressional and war profiteer offices. Print out these checks, and write your own messages to your congressional representatives and to local officials at companies such as Bechtel. For increased impact, assemble groups all bearing these checks, and visit your congressional representatives during the recess, which extends from August 7 to September 4. This is an election year, and an excellent time for constituents to use the power of the ballot. Thanks for all you do, Shundahai Network www.shundahai.org P.O. Box 1115 Salt Lake City, UT 84110 Phone- 801.533.0128 Fax- 801.533.0129 shundahai@shundahai.org
CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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Divine Strake weapons test postponed for further studyNevada site may be out for the blast test--
Delayed again: Director of Pentagon agency to assess other locationsDivine Strake postponed until 2007Divine Strake explosion delayed, possibly moved....and from HEAL Utah: The ditch has already been dug. The 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to fill it have already been purchased. But thankfully, the concerned voices of downwinders have delayed again the Pentagon's intent to resurrect 10,000-foot mushroom clouds on our horizon. The Department of Defense announced yesterday that the Divine Strake test would be delayed until at least "several months into 2007," but that it would proceed at that point if it is determined that the blast can comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and there is a favorable ruling in the lawsuit brought by the Western Shoshone and Downwinders. ( Read more... )However, regardless of what they determine about the safety of the test, Divine Strake needs to be cancelled. This test leads us down the path towards the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons and renewed nuclear weapons testing, which would put us downwind once again. The Pentagon's own documents describe Divine Strake as a way for war planners to model small nuclear weapons (although they later said the reference to a nuclear weapon was a "mistake"). ( Read more... )
CANCEL THE DIVINE STRAKE! STOP WEAPONS TESTING ON ANY LAND! END NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION!
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