Edward Snowden speaks out, from Moscow
Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow Edward Joseph Snowden 1st July 2013 One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Lobbying and “front groups” paid of for Entergy nuclear company
Despite the dangers of running an aging nuclear plant on two fault-lines beside America’s largest population center, the NRC has shown little will towards fulfilling it’s public safety mandate. Even if the agency is unable to legally relicense the two Indian Point reactors, Diane Screnci says that under timely renewal there is no time limit on how long the reactors can continue to operate. New Yorkers could be forced to live beside a radioactive Pandora’s Box indefinitely or at least until its nuclear lid is lifted.
GERIATRIC NUCLEAR REACTORS COULD KILL US ALL, VICE NEWS, By Peter Rugh 26 June 13 “……….While the company [Entergy] has skimped on infrastructure upgrades at it’s aging plant, a report from the campaign finance watchdog Common Cause NY last month found that Entergy has spent approximately $40 million on lobbying and campaign contributions on a state and federal level since 2005 as its reactor licenses at Indian Point neared expiration. The report notes that Entegy has retained the public relations firm Burson Marstella, “self-described experts in ‘reputation and crisis management strategies,’ who have worked for such highly controversial clients as Union Carbide, Philip Morris, Blackwater, Foxconn, and Babcock & Wilcox (the firm that designed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant).”
Entergy has also set up two front groups to advocate on its behalf, according to Common Cause. SHARE (Safe Healthy Affordable Reliable Energy) targets communities of color in New York City by advocating for nuclear power as a way to reduce pollution and lower asthma rates while NY AREA (Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance) targets unions and environmental groups. Steets insisted that while Entergy executives serve on the boards of these organizations, they are independent of the corporation. Yet doppelgangers of these same groups exist elsewhere where Entergy operates reactors. Take Massachusetts, where company runs the Pilgrim nuclear plant near Plymouth. There’s a group called MASS AREA, whose publicity material nearly matches those of its New York counterpart. Continue reading
Nuclear firms gave big bucks to US congressmen to promote MOX nuclear program
Energy Department Nuclear Nonproliferation Program Plagued By Problems Center For Public Integrity HUFFINGTON POST By Douglas Birch and R. Jeffrey Smith, 25 June 13 “…..For years, the plant has been kept alive by South Carolina’s mostly Republican congressional delegation, which includes many strident critics of federal spending, budget deficits, and mammoth public works projects – including Sen. Tim Scott (R.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R.). On the issue of the MOX plant, which employs 2,100 workers, they have been hugely supportive.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), joined others on Capitol Hill in January in asserting that “the time has come for the President to face up to the need to control federal spending.” Since then, Graham has lectured DOE officials at hearings on the diplomatic and security disaster that would ensue if the Savannah River project was halted.
With three other Republican senators, Graham pledged in a joint statement last month to hold up nominations and use the budget process “to ensure the [MOX] program moves forward.”
Graham declined to comment for this article. According to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of campaign donations and leadership committee receipts listed by the Center for Responsive Politics, Graham has received $46,500 since 2001 from three private firms with a stake in the MOX project. In total, the firms provided at least $437,000 in campaign funds during this period to members of the four congressional committees that decide the Energy Department’s annual budge
Rep. James Clyburn (D.-S.C.), who has long been a member of the House Democratic leadership and who has boasted about helping block Hobson’s challenge to the plant, collected $51,000 in political funding from the firms, whose lobbyists and officers also donated $40,000 to a golf charity he runs. Clyburn’s spokeswoman Hope Derrick said the congressman “is solely motivated by the best interests of the people and communities he serves in Congress.”
In the last three years alone, Areva and Shaw have spent a total of $6.3 million to lobby for their legislative interests, including efforts by at least four former congressmen and some former committee staffers that advocated spending on MOX and nuclear issues, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity……”.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/energy-department-nuclear-nonproliferation_n_
Why you can’t rely on the Worldx Health Organisation or the International Atomic Energy Agency
Britain’s Labour Party snubs atomic test veterans
Labour ‘snub’ for A-bomb veterans The Shields Gazette, 13 June 13 A NUCLEAR test veteran from South Tyneside is “very disappointed” at the response of Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to a call for support. John Taylor wrote to Mr Miliband, on behalf of himself and the 1,000 ex-servicemen, demanding justice after being exposed to radiation during British nuclear weapon tests in the Pacific in the 1950s.
Mr Taylor, 76, of Carnegie Close, South Shields, had a chance meeting with the Labour leader, while he was supporting Emma Lewell-Buck during her successful by-election battle in the town. But although Mr Miliband asked Mr Taylor to write to him about the campaign, the atom bomb veteran was “unhappy” with the Labour leader’s response.
Mr Taylor said: “Basically, everything in the letter was stuff we already knew. There was no pledge to back our campaign. “There is nothing in Ed Miliband’s letter that suggested he was going to support us. I was very disappointed, because I thought Mr Miliband could have taken up our fight in Westminster.
“I think the veterans’ solicitors will be disappointed with his response too. “His letter really suggested that we would have to fight our cases individually, rather than as a concerted campaign.”
Wearing little or no protective clothing, Mr Taylor witnessed three nuclear explosions between July and September 1957, as part of Operation Antler, while serving as a leading aircraftman with the RAF in Maralinga, Australia.
All the vets claim the nuclear tests caused medical problems for themselves and their families……..
Although the veterans saw their case rejected by the Supreme Court in London last year, Mr Taylor and fellow campaigners hope for a more positive hearing later this year at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/crime/labour-snub-for-a-bomb-veterans-1-5761740
International Atomic Energy Agency’s control over UNSCEAR and WHO
Fukushima and the nuclear industry’s fight against fear, Noel Wauchope, Independent Australia, 12 June 13,“……..We should also bear in mind the relationship between both the World Health Organisation and UNSCEAR to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The World Health Organisation is bound by an agreement with the IAEA. A clause of this agreement says the WHO effectively grants the right of prior approval over any research it might undertake or report on to the IAEA
UNSCEAR is also subservient to the IAEA. Every UNSCEAR report must be specifically approved by the IAEA. UNSCEAR’s membership is largely from the nuclear industry. Its chairman, Wolfgang Weiss, is a boss on Euratom which, according to Wikipedia, is
‘… an international organisation founded in 1958 with the purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, developing nuclear energy and distributing it to its member states while selling the surplus to non-member states.’
The IAEA itself has as its founding brief:
‘The agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity through the world.’……”
Hundreds of corporate whistleblowers targeted by USA cyber attacks
Obama ordered hit-list of Targeted Individuals worldwide to cyber-attack EXAMINER, JUNE 8, 2013 BY: DEBORAH DUPRE Barack Obama ordered national security leaders to compile a new targeted individual hit-list, this one consisting of possible “adversaries” overseas and, in emergencies in the U.S., for his regime to cyber-attack with “little or no warning,” a top secret document reveals. The 18-page, classified document, entitled Presidential Policy Directive 20, outlines plans for
Offensive Cyber Effects Operations (OCEO), cyber-attacks that would target US adversaries globally……The directive also includes the potential use of cyber-attacks on Americans and others in the US, though any such operations must be conducted with prior authorization of the White House — unless “it qualifies as an Emergency Cyber Action.”……
A target accustomed to internet communications and business could be be isolated, financially ruined, unable to seek help from family and friends without internet capacity.
Each of hundreds of self-identified Targeted Individuals who have contacted this author since 2005 have complained about being cyber-attacked. Most of their accounts related their targeting to corporate whistle-blowing or actively working to end high-level crime.
Why is World Health Organisation not releasing Iraq birth defects report?
What’s delaying the WHO report on Iraqi birth defects http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/06/201365101540408281.html A 2012 World 
Health Organization study on congenital birth defects in Iraq has still not been released to the public. 06 Jun 2013 Mozhgan Savabieasfahani Dr Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a native of Iran, is an environmental toxicologist based in Michigan. She is the author of over two dozen peer reviewed articles and the book, Pollution and Reproductive Damage (DVM 2009).
Iraq is poisoned. Thirty-five million Iraqis wake up every morning to a living nightmare of childhood cancers, adult cancers and birth defects. Familial cancers, cluster cancers and multiple cancers in the same individual have become frequent in Iraq.
Sterility, repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects – some never described in any medical books – are all around, in increasing numbers. Trapped in this hellish nightmare, millions of Iraqis struggle to survive, and they and they call for help.
At long last, public pressure and media attention to this public health catastrophe prompted a joint study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Iraqi Ministry of Health to determine the prevalence of birth defects in Iraq. This study began in May-June 2012 and was completed in early October 2012. Continue reading
American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity – Koch tools against renewable energy
powerful forces fueling LePage and his allies’ efforts to weaken Maine’s RPS: Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists from Kansas and owners of the second largest private company in the U.S. with revenues estimated at $100 billion a year.
powerful forces fueling LePage and his allies’ efforts to weaken Maine’s RPS: Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists from Kansas and owners of the second largest private company in the U.S. with revenues estimated at $100 billion a year.
The billionaire force behind GOP attempts to dismantle Maine’s renewable energy standards http://bangordailynews.com/2013/06/04/opinion/the-billionaire-force-behind-gop-attempts-to-dismantle-maines-renewable-energy-standards/ By Phil Bartlett, June 04, 2013, Put into effect nearly 15 years ago with bipartisan support, Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard has created thousands of jobs, cut down on harmful pollution and helped to keep more of Mainers’ energy dollars in the state. Requiring 30 percent of the state’s energy providers’ electricity sales to come from renewables such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric power, it has also led to tremendous investment by renewable energy companies that are paying more than $17 million annually in property taxes and employing more than 2,500 Mainers.
Simply put, the Renewable Portfolio Standard is working — for everyday Mainers and businesses alike. In light of our struggling economy, programs such as the RPS should be celebrated and protected. So what could possibly have motivated Gov. Paul LePage to devote an entire weekly radio address to attacking the program? And why are some elected officials pushing legislation that would dismantle it? Continue reading
Secrecy in plans for radioactive dump near Great Lakes
Used nuclear fuel is a touchy subject because it is so highly radioactive. It must be encased in heavy radiation-proof containers, and remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.
The idea of entombing it close to the Great Lakes has drawn criticism from both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border.
“Canadians have been very clear that this generation must begin to take responsibility now, and not leave used fuel as a legacy for future generations to deal with,”
Nuclear waste meetings draw criticism in Bruce County, The Star, Meetings between Bruce County mayors and nuclear waste planners took place for years behind closed doors, local groups have learned. By: John Spears Business reporter, Jun 05 2013 Two citizens’ groups in Bruce County have asked for a probe of what they say are secret meetings held between local mayors and nuclear waste planners.
Records of meetings going back to 2005 show that mayors and nuclear waste planners discussed both plans for a low and intermediate nuclear waste site and a site for highly radioactive spent fuel, although the projects are supposed to be separate.
No public notice of the meetings was ever given, nor were records published until this spring, according to the groups.
Plans are far advanced for a low- and mid-level waste sitenear Kincardine, Ont., and some residents fear the used fuel site will automatically follow.
The citizens’ groups have filed a formal complaint about the process with Bruce County Council, saying that some of the sessions may have violated the rules governing open meetings under the Municipal Act.
Records of the meetings, though incomplete, show that the mayors were discussing the possibility of locating a used fuel disposal facility in the region before the public was let in on the possibility of it being in Bruce County…… Continue reading
Tepco now admits that groundwater flowing into Fukushima reactors is radioactive
Fukushima plant operator reverses claim groundwater not contaminated (Reuters) Reporting by Risa Maeda; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick. 4 June 13- Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Tuesday it had detected radioactive caesium in groundwater flowing into its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant, reversing an earlier finding that any contamination was negligible.
The announcement is yet another example of Tokyo Electric initially downplaying a problem, only to revise its findings because of faulty procedures. It casts further doubt over its control over the cleanup of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
“Once again, they’ve missed something they should be aware of,” said Atsushi Kasai, a former researcher of radiation protection at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute…… The discovery that groundwater is also being contaminated before it enters the damaged reactor buildings compounds the problems for the company known as Tepco. It has been trying to convince local authorities and fishermen that the groundwater has negligible levels of contamination and is safe enough to be dumped into the ocean.
About 400 tonnes of groundwater flow daily into the reactor buildings only to be mixed with highly contaminated water that comes from cooling the melted fuel.That water has to be stored in tanks and pits. Leaks in the latter in recent weeks have prompted it to scramble to build more tanks.
Tepco on May 30 told fishermen that radioactive caesium in the groundwater was at a level that could not be detected.But the results were false as they were skewed by using procedures that failed to take into account the background radiation at the damaged plant, Tepco told Reuters on Tuesday. The findings were earlier reported by local media.
“We’ll have to correct the way we analyse sample data,” said Mayumi Yoshida, a Tepco spokeswoman.The revised results still show the radiation level to be below what Tepco views as the upper limit for releasing groundwater — one becquerel of caesium 137 per litre. A becquerel is a measure of radioactivity.
Follow up analysis showed the groundwater had 0.22 becquerel of caesium-134 per litre and 0.39 becquerel of cesium-137 per litre rather than an undetectable amount, Yoshida said……http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/uk-nuclear-japan-tokyo-electric-idUKBRE95309020130604
Nevada population was exposed to nuclear bomb tests’ radioactive fallout
Add this little public service booklet, illustrated with the drawing at left and written by the Atomic Energy Commission to the people of Nevada:
“You are in a very real sense active participants in the Nation’s atomic test program. … Some of you have been inconvenienced by our test operations. At times some of you have been exposed to potential risk from flash, blast, or fall-out. You have accepted the inconvenience or the risk without fuss, without alarm, and without panic. Your cooperation has helped achieve an unusual record of safety.”
As though they were asked.
How Do We Know Nuclear Bombs Blow Down Forests? Because we built a forest in Nevada and blew it down. Slate, By Ann Finkbeiner May 31, 2013, “……. Once the United States had built the first atomic bomb in 1945, it then improved it by building the first hydrogen bomb in 1952. It then began working on building more portable bombs, and since the Soviet Union had done the same, the United States also wondered about the bombs’ effects. So in the early 1950s, the government set up models of all the things that bombs could blow up—houses, bridges, cars, pigs, sheep—and exploded bombs near them. The government did this for at least a decade and didn’t stop until it and the rest of the world banned above-ground testing. The tests, many of them at the Nevada Test Site, were called “shots,” and they had names.
The shot called Encore was on May 8, 1953, and among the many effects it tested was what a nuclear bomb would do to a forest. The Nevada Test Site wasn’t replete with forests, so the U.S. Forest Service brought 145 ponderosa pines from a nearby canyon and cemented them into holes lined up in tidy rows in an area called Frenchman Flat, 6,500 feet from ground zero. Then the Department of Defense air-dropped a 27-kiloton bomb that exploded 2,423 feet above the model forest. The heat set fire to the forest, then the blast wave blew down the trees and put out some fires and started others. Here’s the video. Continue reading
San Onofre: call for criminal investigation into Southern California Edison’s statements
“Now that this precise failure has occurred, and there has been a leak of radioactive material, Edison claims that it could simply restart the nuclear plant at 70 percent capacity, and once again circumvent the full safety and licensing process,” Boxer said. “How could they first assert that tube failure would be a ‘disastrous outcome’ and now claim that it is no big deal?”
Senator Boxer Seeks Criminal Probe of San Onofre Nuclear Plant WASHINGTON, DC, May 29, 2013 (ENS) – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer of California is asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Southern California Edison’s statements to nuclear regulators about replacing steam generators at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Located on the California coast south of San Clemente, San Onofre has been shut down since January 2012 due to premature wear found on over 3,000 tubes in replacement steam generators and a leak of radioactive material.
Senator Boxer Tuesday released a 2004 letter by an Edison executive to steam generator manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries that she said presents “major new evidence of misrepresentation and safety lapses by Edison.” Edison replaced steam generators in 2009 and 2010 without review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because the company said the replacements met a federal test of being the same parts. Continue reading
San Onofre: Southern California Edison intentionally misled nuclear regulators
Senator Boxer calls for probe on California nuclear plant, Christina Science Monitor 28 May 13 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California charges that Southern California Edison intentionally misled regulators in order to avoid an extensive safety review of upgrades to its San Onofre nuclear plant. Senator Boxer has called on the Justice Department to investigate. By David J. Unger, Correspondent / May 28, 2013 The operator of a California nuclear plant is under fire from a US senator for allegedly misrepresenting the nature of an equipment upgrade that resulted in a small radioactive leak at the plant last year. It’s another blow to Southern California Edison (SCE), which has worked to reopen the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station for over a year. The fallout has cost the company more than $553 million and drawn attacks from environmentalists who say the plant is inherently unsafe.
On Tuesday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California released a private company letter she says is evidence of the company intentionally misleading regulators in order to avoid an extensive safety review of upgrades to San Onofre. She has called on the Justice Department to investigate. Continue reading
Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi General Electric, Westinghouse, Areva will make Japan keep nuclear power
Is it safe? Ruling party pushes nuclear village agenda BY JEFF KINGSTON JAPAN TIMES, 26 May 13, “…..The election of the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party to power in December 2012 was not about energy policy, but has revived prospects for the nuclear village; citizens may favor phasing out nuclear energy, but they will not get to decide. Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi tie-ups with General Electric, Westinghouse and Areva mean that Japan stands at the nexus of the global nuclear-energy industry. The recent award of a $22 billion contract by Turkey to a Japanese-led consortium indicates how high the stakes are, explaining why domestic firms’ nuclear-policy preferences are fully reflected in government policy.
If Japan terminated nuclear power, the pain would extend beyond the utilities and vendors; lenders and investors, including Japan’s major banks and insurance firms, would also face huge losses. Pulling the plug on nuclear power could also drive some of Japan’s 10 utilities into insolvency. In addition, there have been strident voices from the political right calling for the retention of nuclear energy because it leaves available the nuclear-weapons option. Washington, too, has warned Tokyo that phasing out nuclear energy would harm bilateral relations because it would raise concerns about Japan’s large stockpiles of plutonium and uncomfortable questions about the consistency of U.S. nuclear non-proliferation efforts targeting Iran and North Korea…….http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/05/26/commentary/is-it-safe-ruling-party-pushes-nuclear-village-agenda/#.UaPpE9JwpLs
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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