Jul23
Release Date:
7-23-10
Media Advisory
Friday, July 23, 2010,
Contact Sandra Schwartz, 415-565-0201 x 24, or Marylia Kelley, 925-443-7148
Expert Interviews are available in advance of the August 6 event, "65 Years After the U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: It's Time to RETIRE the Bomb"
August 6th and 9th will mark the 65th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of people are expected to gather at the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons Lab to commemorate this solemn occasion and protest the ongoing research and development of nuclear weapons. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were horrific, killing an estimated 250,000 people by the end of 1945, and hundreds of thousands more over the following years. Survivors continue to suffer from psychological trauma and the lingering prolonged health effects of radiation exposure.
Over the ensuing 65 years, we have spent trillions of dollars in the name of “national security”, contaminated our air, land and water with toxic radioactive waste, and stockpiled tens of thousands of warheads. Yet, we are less secure now as more nations seek to follow our lead.
The world still lives under the threat of nuclear annihilation. Despite soaring rhetoric from President Obama embracing nuclear abolition, the recently released Nuclear Posture Review reveals few changes in U.S. nuclear force structure. Moreover, the U.S. plans to invest $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex, including new bomb factories in New Mexico, Tennessee and Missouri, and “well over” $100 billion in nuclear delivery systems to sustain existing capabilities and modernize some strategic systems by the year 2020. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s funding will increase by more than 40%, from $6.4 billion in FY 2010 to $9 billion by 2018—43% above what the U.S. spent on similar programs during the Cold War.
65 years of nuclear terror is enough. It's time to RETIRE the bomb. It is possible to rid the world of nuclear weapons in our lifetime. The experts listed below are available to discuss the Friday, August 6th action at Livermore Lab (see flier at www.trivalleycares.org), the international momentum to abolish nuclear weapons, the recent call by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to slash nuclear weapons spending and redirect funds to meet the needs of cities, and other dimensions of current nuclear weapons policy.
Speakers' / Interviewees' Short Biographies:
DANIEL ELLSBERG - (510) 525-2605
http://www.ellsberg.net/bio In 1959, Daniel Ellsberg became a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Defense Department and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. In 1961 he drafted the guidance from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the operational plans for general nuclear war. He was a member of two of the three working groups reporting to the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOM) during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Ellsberg is the author of three books: Papers on the War (1971), Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002), and Risk, Ambiguity and Decision (2001). In December 2006 he was awarded the 2006 Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” in Stockholm, Sweden, “. . for putting peace and truth first, at considerable personal risk, and dedicating his life to inspiring others to follow his example.”
Daniel Ellsberg lives in Kensington, California with his wife, Patricia Marx. Dr. Ellsberg is available August 2, 3, 4 and 5th 2010.
NORMAN SOLOMON – mediabeat@igc.org 415-663-9674
Journalist, author and activist whose books include: “Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience With Atomic Radiation” (co-authored with Harvey Wasserman, 1982); “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” (2005); and “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters With America’s Warfare State” (2007). Since the 1970s, his investigative reporting and essays about many aspects of nuclear weapons have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Chicago Tribune, The Nation and many other publications. He is the founder and president of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nonprofit organization with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Solomon lives in Marin County.
MARYLIA KELLEY marylia@earthlink.net or marylia@trivalleycares.org, 925-443-7148
Marylia Kelley is executive director of the Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs. She brings 27 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in decisions regarding the Department of Energy weapons complex, Livermore Lab, nuclear weapons, waste and cleanup. Kelley advises EPA and state agencies on the Superfund cleanup of toxic and radioactive pollution at Livermore Lab. She has provided input to the National Academy of Sciences on the proliferation risks of the U.S. nuclear weapons "stockpile stewardship" program and on the spread of contaminants at the Lab's main site and Site 300 high explosives testing range. Kelley has written for numerous publications, including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and serves as editor for the organization's newsletter, Citizen's Watch. Kelley has received numerous awards for her work with Tri-Valley CAREs, and, in 2002, she was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame.
DR. ROBERT M GOULD – rmgould@yahoo.com
Robert M. Gould, MD has worked as a Pathologist at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose since 1981. Since 1989, he has been President of the SF-Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), representing approximately 3,000 physicians and health providers, and in 2003 was President of National PSR, currently comprising approximately 30,000 members. PSR's historic efforts to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear war grew into an international movement with the founding of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), with which PSR shared the Nobel Peace Price awarded to IPPNW in 1985. Since 1986, Dr. Gould has been a leading member of the Peace Caucus of the American Public Health Association, for which he is current Chairperson, and in 2009 APHA awarded Dr. Gould the prestigious Sidel-Levy Peace Award. Dr. Gould has been recognized as a leading expert on the environmental and public health impacts nuclear weapons, and has been a contributing author to chapters on health impacts of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism in “War and Public Health” (2008) and “Terrorism and Public Health” (2002) published by Oxford University Press.
Scott Yundt serves as Staff Attorney for Tri-Valley CAREs. Scott's present scope of work at Tri-Valley CAREs includes pursuing federal environmental litigation to prevent the collocation of biowarfare agent research facilities and nuclear weapons. He also heads the group's litigation under the Freedom of Information Act to compel documents the group had requested but never received. Scott manages all of the group's community right to know activities. He also facilitates a support group for local nuclear weapons workers made ill by on the job exposures. Additionally, Scott heads up the group's activities to achieve conversion of Livermore Lab from nuclear weapons to a "green lab" focused on civilian science initiatives.
JACQUELINE CABASSO wslf@earthlink.net 510-839-5877 or 510-306-0119
Jacqueline Cabasso has been involved in nuclear disarmament, peace and environmental advocacy at the local, national and international levels for over 30 years. Since 1984 she has served as Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, California, a nuclear abolition advocacy group grounded in commitments to nonviolence and international law, with a local focus on the Livermore National Nuclear Weapons Lab. At the national level Ms. Cabasso serves on the Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice and convenes its Nuclear Disarmament/ Redefining Security working group. Internationally, she is a leading voice for the abolition of nuclear weapons, speaking at conferences and events around the world. Since August 2007, she has served as North American Coordinator for Mayors for Peace. Ms. Cabasso is a co-author of Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis and Paths to Peace (2007) and the co-author of Risking Peace: Why We Sat in the Road (1985), an account of the huge 1983 nonviolent protest at the Livermore Laboratory and the subsequent mass trial conducted by WSLF. Ms. Cabasso is the recipient of the International Peace Bureau’s 2008 Sean MacBride Peace Award, and the Agape Foundation’s 2009 Enduring Visionary Prize.
Ms Cabasso is available through July 24th
Director of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England and AFSC’s National Disarmament Coordinator. His current work focuses on advancing the U.S. and international movements for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the ratification of the limited “New START” treaty. In addition to building collaborations with partner organizations in the United States, he has worked closely with Asian and European peace and justice organizations for nearly four decades.
Dr. Gerson served as the co-convener of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review International Planning Committee, a network of 25 leading disarmament organizations from Japan, the United States, Europe and Israel which was created in order to help ensure a successful NPT Review Conference. He served as chief organizer of the committee’s international conference, which was addressed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and he was deeply involved in organizing the 15,000-strong “Disarm Now” demonstration on the eve of the Review Conference. He participated in numerous forums and meetings during the NPT, including the presentation of more than 17 million petition signatures to the Review Conference President Ambassador Libran Cabactulan and U.N. High Commissioner for Disarmament Sergio Duarte which called for the commencement of negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention.
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