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Harvey Wasserman - Comments on Nuclear Terrorism
Yeah, I know, most of you will eithr just delete this or laugh at it.
But for the few who are interested.....
> KNOWING WHAT WHEN ABOUT ATOMIC TERRORISM
>
> By Harvey Wasserman
>
> Columbus ALIVE (Please Circulate and Reprint)
>
> So if Bush knew something at sometime about the possibility of
> terrorists
> using jets to crash into government buildings, why didn't he do
> something
> about it before September 11?
>
> And far more importantly: if he knows something about the possibility
> of
> terrorists attacking atomic power plants and causing a radioactive
> apocalypse, why doesn't he act RIGHT NOW, before we find ourselves in
> post-tragedy hearings about why he didn't?
>
> And just for the heck of it, let's throw in another related quiz
> question:
> what do you do with a gigantic, highly radioactive piece of metal that
> weighs
> 120 tons, has a six-inch hole in its head, and is currently
> "ship-in-a-bottle" locked inside a massive concrete and steel
> containment
> dome that's many feet thick, latticed with powerful re-bar steel,
> allegedly
> designed to withstand the radioactive fires and pressures of a
> controlled
> nuclear explosion?
>
> The rap that US intelligence should have anticipated the possibility
> of a
> horrific hijacking like September 11 is not a partisan bauble. The
> threats
> were always credible, and there was a way to deal with them: pay for
> decent
> airport security. Paul Krugman of the New York Times placed the blame
>
> precisely where it belonged immediately after the disaster: airline
> deregulation. Terrorist don't walk onto commercial aircraft with box
> cutters
> unless screening is really lax, which it certainly was prior to 9/11.
> Why?
> Because the airline industry, with its well-heeled lobbyists working
> Congress
> and the White House, didn't want to pay for real precautions. Locks
> on
> cockpit doors, armed marshalls riding shotgun, trained screening
> personnel---it wasn't really rocket science. It could have prevented
> September 11.
>
> But the White House, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (whose wife
> lobbies
> for the airlines), and an army of bought pols simply said: "Don't
> bother."
>
> Well, now there are prices to be paid. Bush's poll ratings won't
> shield him
> from having exploited a horrible human tragedy for which his own
> corrupt
> neglect was partly responsible.
>
> But there's another nightmare in the wings, and the response has been
> precisely as lax and complacent as what led to 9/11. But this time
> the
> consquences could be infinitely worse.
>
> The major media is now carrying reports of terrorist threats against
> commercial atomic power plants to happen on or around July 4. Nuke
> sabotage
> has long been considered a credible event. Bush cited reactor plans
> found at
> Al Quaeda hideouts and the Ayotallah Khomeini among others has talked
> about
> hitting "nuclear targets."
>
> In short, if warnings of hijacked planes crashing into government
> buildings
> prior to 9/11 were vague and isolated, warning of attacks on nuclear
> plants
> are clear and abundant.
>
> So has the government reacted? Not hardly. There's been some
> heightened
> ground security, and talk of posting snipers. The Nuclear Control
> Institute
> has suggested installing anti-aircraft emplacements.
>
> But atomic reactors are infinitely complex and vulnerable. There are
> literally thousands of ways to attack one. The only real security
> measure is
> to shut them all.
>
> Which is do-able. The US electric grid is awash in capacity. The
> alleged
> "shortages" driving prices through the California roof were fake.
> Every
> reactor in the US could disappear tomorrow and there might be some
> temporary
> shortages in some isolated areas, but virtually no impact on the
> national
> supply.
>
> Where there WOULD be an impact is if one of these threats comes true,
> a la
> 9/11. A US reactor catastrophe, terrorist or otherwise, could kill
> hundreds
> of thousands of people, poison millions, cause trillions of dollars in
>
> damage, permanently devastate thousands of square miles and
> irrevocably
> cripple the entire US economy.
>
> The threats to make all that happen are far clearer and more tangible
> than
> what preceded 9/11. The Administration's insane response has been to
> push to
> build more reactors.
>
> So do we now wait for disaster to strike, and then hold hearings to
> determine
> what the administration knew and when? Or do we find a way to shut
> these
> things down before the unthinkable occurs?
>
> We may not have to wait for the terrorists anyway. A six-inch hole
> burned by
> boric acid into the head of the Davis-Besse reactor near Toledo
> recently
> brought the Great Lakes within 3/8th of an inch of extinction. A
> tiny,
> remnant sliver of warped, buckled metal may be all that saved millions
> of
> people from lethal fallout.
>
> The plant owners want to replace the head. But how do you get it
> out? Where
> do you put it once you do? And who's going to volunteer to be exposed
> to the
> incredibly intense levels of radiation involved with this horrendous
> task?
>
> Every week new horrors emerge, from a full-scale fire in California's
> San
> Onofre plant during the dereg crisis to an endless litany of human
> errors and
> mechanical fiascos that bring us ever-closer to atomic catastrophe.
>
> The first jet that flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11 flew
> directly
> over the Indian Point reactors, forty miles north. Had it dived down
> a
> minute earlier, all of New York would now be a radioactive waste land.
>
> It didn't then, but it could now be happening as you read this.
> George Bush
> may duck what he knew and didn't know on 9/11. But we all know plenty
> about
> 103 sitting duck US commercial reactors, and the 430-plus worldwide.
>
> Credible threats have been made. The reactors are vulnerable. Their
> power
> is not needed. What are we waiting for?
>
> Unplug Salem Campaign; Coalition for Peace and Justice;
> 321 Barr Ave; Linwood NJ 08221
> 609-601-8583/8537
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr
Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583 or 609-601-8537;
ncohen12@comcast.net UNPLUG SALEM WEBSITE:
http://www.unplugsalem.org/ COALITION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE WEBSITE:
http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org The Coalition for Peace and
Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.
"First they ignore you; Then they laugh at you; Then they fight you;
Then you win. (Gandhi) "Why walk when you can fly?" (Mary Chapin
Carpenter)
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