• Silver City
• Albuquerque
• Los Alamos
• Santa Fe
• Taos

Nukes Out Of Duke

Stop the War Machine is a grassroots citizen action organization that works independently and with others on a range of social justice issues.  Not least of these is an end to the War in Iraq and other such imperial misadventures, the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide and - more locally and immediately - the removal and dismantling of 1,914 nuclear weapons currently in storage at Kirtland Air Force Base in immediate proximity to a population of 700,000 and New Mexico's primary watershed and corridor of development - the Rio Grande valley.

Bob Anderson, Jeanne Pahls and Andrew Markham visited Silver City recently as part of an ongoing tour of the state to inform NM residents of the latent danger of having the worlds 3rd largest arsenal of nuclear weapons sitting at Kirtland and the implications for Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico and the world.

SWM has found an ally in Albuquerque's Senator Gerry Ortiz y Pino who will introduce a memorial in the upcoming 2008 session of the NM legislature requesting the federal government to review this situation and take action to remove the weapons from Albuquerque.  Though non-binding, it will bring the issue forward in public discussion, increase awareness and hopefully energize the hundreds of thousands in Albuquerque and beyond that sit beneath this Sword of Damocles to demand that their elected officials cease to ignore this potential disaster and assume responsibility for the public safety.  To further that end, Ortiz y Pino has taped a short video message announcing his support for the effort.  It is included within this program. 

As Jeanne Pahls suggests, the lack of any planning or evacuation contingency for a nuclear crisis in Albuquerque is like having no plan to address hurricanes in New Orleans.  The consequences could be more devastating and enduring than anything we have seen on the Gulf coast.  Thus, SWM's efforts are directed toward city, state and federal officials.  They have had ongoing communications with Senator Bingaman and a copy of their petition with 8,000 signatures demanding the removal of this nuclear stockpile from its present location has been received by Senator Domenici.

SWM encourages residents of Albuquerque, those elsewhere in the state, and citizens beyond to download the petition, print out copies, gather signatures and return the completed petitions to them with the next goal being 15,000 signatures.  It is telling that the logic and common sense that would seemingly have prevented such an occurence are nowhere in evidence among our political leaders.  Further, it is a shameful circumstance that such extraordinary efforts are necessary to prod them to discharge their offices responsibly rather than so recklessly and negligently jeopardizing public safety 

The matter of these 1,914 nuclear weapons being present in Albuquerque is only one aspect of the Hydra of the nuclear industry.  The issue of peak oil and the Bush administration's indefensible and intransigent policies regarding climate change combined with his hell bent intention to control and exploit Iraqi oil - and Iranian oil as well - have given new life to the all but moribund nuclear power industry.  

Nuclear power advocates ignore all lessons taught in the nuclear error, uh, era including environmetal and biological consequences of nuclear waste, proliferation and the multiple nuclear disasters that have occurred despite the expertise of nuclear scientists and assurrances of political and corporate front men.  Bush and his corporate thug supporters seek to massively increase the number of nuclear power plants in the US and worldwide - as if the choke points of oil distribution were not attractive enough targets for terrorism.  

The increasing amounts of nuclear material that would be produced under such a scenario, will almost inevitably result in such materials falling into the hands of terrorists of the radical, fundamentalist AND state variety.  In addition to the mushrooming availability of materials suitable for low tech "dirty bombs" and other radioactive witches brews, the industry demand for nuclear physisists, designers and technicians, and their access to sophisticated research and development facilities will likewise inevitably produce a cadre of experts capable of designing or improvising nuclear horrors for ideololical or financial motivations aside from the statistically inevitable increase in accidents or, if you prefer, "events."

Further, the NPT / Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is not an intrusive demand by a worldwide conspiracy - it is OUR law, the Law of the Land.  In exchange for the agreement of EVERY country in the world (except Israel, India, Pakistan which are all US allies and subsequent developers of nuclear weapons, and Cuba) to forego nuclear weapons, the 5 original nuclear weapons powers agreed to reduce, dismantle and As Soon As Possible, eliminate all nuclear weapons.  It has been violated in spirit and letter by successive presidents of the United States and Congresses with no demand that they adhere to our law or consequence for their blatant and willful violations.  These include the current drive to build the "Reliable Replacement Warhead."  The RRW initiative is essentially a broad mantle to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons and all the associated technologies that these criminals envision to bring about "Full Spectrum Dominance" - the ability to destroy anything, anyone, anywhere, at any time, preemptively.

In our current political environment, it is nearly impossible to hold officials responsible for what they ate for breakfast much less hold them responsible for the most dangerous and enduring substances that man has managed to create.  Hi level raidioactive materials will be extremely lethal for hundreds of thousands of years - many time longer than there have been two sticks tied together anywhere in on the face of the Earth.  No method of containment is proven to able to contain their powers over years, eras, ages, indeed, over geological epochs.  How then can they claim to assume responsibility for the impacts on future generations?  Stated simply, they cannot.

Yet another aspect of the nuclear industry is the effect of its increasing insinuation within higher education.  The privatization of public resources - in this case conversion of university educational and research facilities into taxpayer subsidized R&D labs for weapons manufacturers and corporate profiteers of various stripes - is occuring nationwide and particularly at institutions with the highest visibility and greatest concentrations and sophistication of of publicly funded resources. 

UNM denies having any "classified war weapons related research with corporations and defense contractors but the complex web of relations between higher education, the defense department and military contractors on a broad variety of projects calls into question the definition of a "defense" or "military" program vs an "energy" or other dual use technology similar to the redefinition of "torture" vs the White House authorized use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."  Their extensive research on microwave / directed energy beams is a blunt contradiction to UNM claims that they aren't in the weapons business.  The incident last year in which Bob Anderson was arrested for protesting a Sandia Labs panel at UNM advocating the development of new generations of nuclear / high tech / space based weapons further contradicts UNM's non-weapons claims. 

As SWM has often stated... 

Ike was right about the military-industrial-congressional complex.  May as well throw in academia as well.

Click here to watch or here to listen.

More New Mexico nuclear activists:

• Los Alamos Study Grp
• Citizen Action
• Nuke Watch / NM
• Alb Peace & Justice