From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #37 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Saturday, November 7 1998 Volume 01 : Number 037 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 23:29:18 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: aid to Honduras In a message dated 11/3/98 10:33:45 AM Eastern Standard Time, mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com writes: << Subj: aid to Honduras Date: 11/3/98 10:33:45 AM Eastern Standard Time From: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio) Sender: err.processor@MennoLink.org Reply-to: mcpjc@mail.sssnet.com (Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee, Orrville Ohio), menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org To: menno.org.peace@MennoLink.org, menno.talk.congregations@MennoLink.org Friends, I sent that note about Honduras to you all and less than an hour later came questions from several of you about how to help. So, I called and talked with Bruce Glick, MCC Great Lakes, who was my SST coordinator in Honduras. . .well, way back when! He said this is major, major, major, major, much of the country under water, and lots of money and a long-term response will be needed. MCC is already contacting people to go down and has okayed $300,000 for beginning work. Someone asked if MDS is going. They mostly work in the United States and Canada (?), but are working in Puerto Rico and perhaps the Domican Republic as a result of the hurricanes there. If you want to send money, it can go through your regional MCC or: MCC PO Box 500 Akron PA 17501-0500 MDS can receive donations at the same address. Another report should be coming from Akron later today. I'll also forward that to this list. Oh, and if you happen to live near Kidron and want to run in and help Bruce set up an "e-mail list" on his soft ware this morning quick since the MCC secretarial help isn't in the office today, well, that would be a fine bit of help! Or you could answer the phone a bit. . .he says it's ringing off the hook! mccgl@bright.net peace, Susan Susan Mark Landis Minister of peace and Justice for the Mennonite Church PO Box 173, Orrville OH 44667-0173 phone/fax 330-683-6844 mcpjc@sssnet.com http://www.MennoLink.org/peace/ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 23:29:22 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: HELP!!! Please. << Subj: HELP!!! Please. Date: 11/2/98 10:57:48 AM Eastern Standard Time From: miguel@scf.sdnhon.org.hn To: delpo@ix.netcom.com, dresito@juno.com, prcsandiego@igc.apc.org, cheryl.r.doss@williams.edu, cweber@orion.oac.uci.edu, c2colins@aol.com, dfreedma@hsph.harvard.edu, davidmcr@aol.com, dcoady@igc.apc.org, cus4@email.msn.com, emilys@home.com, info@globalexchange.org, jschell@teetot.acusd.edu, beckbon@igc.apc.org, katrush@neca.com, lindafox@sirius.com, wamsley@itsa.ucsf.edu, imbloom@op.net, mmmsrnb@igc.apc.org, pmarsh1@san.rr.com, nccir@igc.apc.org, forpti@igc.apc.org, rjahnkow@aol.com, rford@capsf.org, snolike@aol.com, wrl@igc.apc.org, kanen@pacbell.net, MC507@columbia.edu, mchisolm@email.msn.com, GAPH@uci.edu, forlatam@igc.org, catracho@msn.com, gaph@ea.oac.uci.edu dear friends-- i need your help. honduras and tegucigalpa need your help. you've already received two updates from me. i'm not completely comfortable asking for assistance via email, but believe me, your help is urgently needed. please read this email. if you can, please send what you can (i'm tempted to say "as much as you can and as soon as you can") to: paul marsh 6837 lanewood court san diego, ca 92111 (619) 560-1233 checks should be made payable to my father, "Paul Marsh/COHAPAZ." trust that every cent will go straight to feeding and relocating members of COHAPAZ in the barrios who have lost their homes and belongings to hurrican mitch, and to other crisis activities of COHAPAZ (like activities for kids in refugee centers, etc.) i can hardly describe the things i've seen these last few days: calm streams turned to raging torrents tens of times bigger than normal, hundreds of homeless people with all their belongings lined along the roadsides in the rain, and entire communities lost-- including one where i regularly work. today's news: first and foremost on everyone's mind, an hour ago, the mayor of tegucigalpa, Cesar Castellanos, died in a helicopter crash. he is (was) an extremely popular man and effective politician. i even liked him and i hardly ever say anything positive about politicians. he was a person who made noticeable changes in this city during his ten months as mayor, a person who cared deeply about the poor and who spent many days in the barrios of tegucigalpa. during this crisis he has been an effective and inspiring leader. i can't imagine who will organize us out of this mess on an institutional level now. his loss adds tremendously to this tragedy! on the personal side, elsy and i spent the day walking and working in campo cielo, flor uno, 14 de febrero and fuerzas unidas, all communities where COHAPAZ is very active. the damage in the barrios is extensive and literally makes me want to cry. none of my friends have died, at least that i'm aware of, but the destruction is horrible. in campo cielo an entire section of the community, approximately 15 homes, slid on top of one another. another section has huge fissures running parallel along the hillside and is no longer habitable, although the houses are standing up to now. fuerzas unidas is a community on the outskirts of the city built on clay. six members of COHAPAZ has partially or totally lost their homes there. and worst of all, the community 14 de febrero, is a complete loss. walking through the area in ankle deep mud was a sad and surrealistic experience. homes of our members, homes that i had visited on numerous ocassions, were carried over 200 yards down the hillside. some landed intact including the possessions! seeing a home, nearly intact, two blocks from where i knew it should be is unlike any experience i've ever had. others were a complete loss. and everywhere were people working under very precarious conditions to salvage what little they could from their homes. one thing is clear: the people with the least have the most to lose. i promised to return to help with the salvage tomorrow. for now i can't bring myself to total the census that i took--i think about fifty of our members in just these five communities lost their homes! also on the personal side, news which is almost too horrible to believe (and let's hope that it is): a ham radio operator in tocoa, colon, just reported that over 98% of the home's in the neighboring town of saba (elsy's hometown) have sustained damage. the entire population was evacuated five days ago, but to where no one seems to know. phone service remains down, as do all of the bridges to the area. also this: the city has no water. not even the hospitals have water. the radios have asked people to bring water to the hospitals. we've been told that the water won't arrive for at least ten days due to powerless pumps, and broken and plugged water mains. we have some water here in the house, though bathing with less than a gallon of water after working in the mud all day is maddenly and brings the crisis home. other notes: every police station we passed today was filled with looters (male) that had been arrested and dozens of women in front with food waiting for a chance to hear about their loved ones and leave the food. honduran prison food, and i imagine this is especially true during this crisis, is practically inedible so women line up each day to bring food to their men. from the direction of the market i hear gunshots every hour or so. the barrios were filled with people washing looted goods that were still covered with mud. the school year here in honduras ends officially in two weeks, but all of the schools that i have seen here in tegucigalpa are filled with refugees. the word on the radio is that the school year will be cut short, students will be spared their final exams and their final grades will be their average for the work that they've done so far this year. we'll see if this becomes reality. tomorrow may or may not be a school day. the expected: the supermarket had more people inside than it had food on the shelves. i'm so happy that i have my garden to supplement the food that elsy was smart enough to buy the day before yesterday! for those of you who know tegucigalpa, here's a list of some of the specific damages that i have seen: the stadium bridge is completely gone, the market bridge remains open to foot traffic only and is the only bridge left intact which connects the two sides of the city, mallol (by the congress) and soberania (4th avenue) bridges are completely underwater still and may be complete losses, the bridge from the center to cerro grande is completely underwater and possibly destroyed, the bridge (puente la isla) is the only bridge open to traffic, the prado bridge (the cute iron and wood bridge) is gone, the bridge in front of the estado mayor sustained heavy damage but is open to foot traffic, as is the villa adela bridge. as for the comayaguela market, it is completely under mud, up to six feet deep in places. a large section of the colonia las brisas (where the indigenous protesters were encamped last year after the desalojo) was completely washed away. the colonia 14 de febrero, one of the colonias where COHAPAZ works, no longer exists as a result of a huge landslide. areas also hard hit: campo cielo, nueva esperanza, la hoya (where the prison is--was--located), villa adela, los altos de san francisco and los laureles, nueva suyapa, all the area around parque concordia... that's it for now. please send a donation as soon as you can, and email me to let me know that you are sending it (it would help to know the dollar amount, if that doesn't seem too pushy, because that would allow me to seek a loan during the interim) to help during this crisis. also, clothes and food and medicines are all badly needed if you know a way to get them here. our address is: COHAPAZ, apdo postal 4736, tegucigalpa, honduras, america central. (my home phone number is (504) 227-0920 and i'm home before 7:30 am and after 7 pm, usually.) some cities have honduran consulates that may be of help to those who wish to send goods. thanks for your assistance and moral support (which i personally need!) spending a day among destruction and surrounded by bad news is not easy. much love from the country i love, michael (marsh) >> - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 00:41:04 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) peaceful spam Friends, As we head toward the holiday season, I gently (being a pacifist) call your attention to the War Resisters League's annual peace calendar, which makes a splendid gift. The theme of this year's Calendar is: "Young People Look at The World", introduction by Betty Jean Lifton. Illustrations by children. This is a 5 1/2 "by 8 1/2" desk calendar, 128 pages, colover covers, spiral bound, with an extensive list of peace resources and international contacts. $12 each, four for $44, postage included. Send your check to War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., New York City, 10012. If you want to see a copy of the calendar brochure, send at email to WRL at: wrl@igc.apc.org and you will get one in the mail. "From tomorrow I shall be sad, From tomorrow on. Not today. Today I will be glad. And every day, no matter how bitter it may be, I shall say: From tomorrow I shall be sad, Not today." (anonymous poem by child found in WW II concentration camp) Peace, David McReynolds - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 00:59:30 EST From: DavidMcR@aol.com Subject: (abolition-usa) left a desk job for this!! Date: 11/4/98 11:58:31 PM Eastern Standard Time From: miguel@scf.sdnhon.org.hn To: delpo@ix.netcom.com, dresito@juno.com, prcsandiego@igc.apc.org, cheryl.r.doss@williams.edu, cweber@orion.oac.uci.edu, c2colins@aol.com, dfreedma@hsph.harvard.edu, davidmcr@aol.com, dcoady@igc.apc.org, cus4@email.msn.com, emilys@home.com, info@globalexchange.org, schellj@is.acusd.edu, beckbon@igc.apc.org, katrush@neca.com, lindafox@sirius.com, LFox@capsf.org, wamsley@itsa.ucsf.edu, imbloom@op.net, mmmsrnb@igc.apc.org, pmarsh1@san.rr.com, nccir@igc.apc.org, forpti@igc.apc.org, rjahnkow@aol.com, RFord@capsf.org, snolike@aol.com, wrl@igc.apc.org, kanen@pacbell.net, MC507@columbia.edu, mchisolm@email.msn.com, GAPH@uci.edu, forlatam@igc.org, catracho@msn.com, esparks1@san.rr.com, UUSDChurch@aol.com, kate.emanuel@mail.house.gov, saranorman@mindspring.com, enweber@aol.com, jbmarsh@aztec.asu.edu, KDwight@aol.com hi everyone-- it sure is good that i love honduras and my friends here, because this sure isn't fun. but first all the good news. i want to thank the many people who have sent us a kind word or a donation. i've always felt that i have the best friends in the world, and no one has let us down. the financial and material contributions have been unlike anything i've ever encountered--so many people giving so much that if this continues i'll have to hire a bookkeeper, an accountant and a lawyer or two. (just kidding, obviously, but the generosity of people is overwhelming.) but equally important for me personally has been the words of support from everyone. this work--seeing the damages and hearing the stories--is depressing. knowing that people are listening and that others care is a big boost. i've even translated a few of the notes so that the women of cohapaz can share the encouragement. thanks!! and a special thanks to those of you who have circulated our appeal and to those of you, whom i don't even know, who have contributed to cohapaz. you're all wonderful! with the money we've received so far, tomorrow we are going to buy three tons of corn, rice, beans and cooking oil to distribute to 300 families who were displaced by the flooding and landslides. that will still leave us some funds toward a second round of purchases next week, and allow us to buy simple supplies for children's activities in the shelters. your donations and interest have made this possible. other good news: elsy's mother is well and her home was saved!! after ten days without any communication, elsy spoke with one of her sisters today. the news is wonderful and perplexing. her entire immediate family is well. they all gathered in what they assumed would be the driest house. as it turned out, they were up to their ankles in water, while the two houses closest to the "rio aguan", Aguan River, (her mother's very simple home and her brother's home) were left untouched. miraculously, the floodwaters stopped two yards shy of her brother's riverside home, and while the waters washed out the bridge only fifty yards away, elsy's mother's home was untouched. i can't describe the jubilation that elsy and i feel tonight. what a relief! tomorrow we will wire them money to help them deal with the lack of food and the price-gougers. then i'll be able to focus on cohapaz and the barrios. as for tegucigalpa, the rivers are still swollen despite the fact that it hasn't really rained for three days. the problem is landslides (near barrio el chile and el parque concordia) have partially dammed the river. as a result, only two bridges between the two halves of tegucigalpa remain open to foot traffic from time to time. parts of the market remain under five or six feet of mud. the education ministry remains flooded, with nearly its entire river-side wall ripped off, and inumerable important documents lost. traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, is horrendous. for instance, elsy walks the three or four miles from our apartment to the medical school. of course, some industrious people have found a business in this--both nancy and elsy report that strong men, for the equivolent of 40 cents, will give piggyback rides to pedestrians not wanting to mess their shoes and pants over the muddiest sections. nancy went for a ride, while elsy saw a man fall and his passenger dumped headfirst in the mud and decided it was better to take off her shoes and walk through the knee-deep mud. word is they charge extra for heavy people. you got to love capitalism! as for the looting, it has slowed considerably. i'm not sure why this so. it could be that we now have a 9pm to 5 am curfew. but it could also be that there is nothing left to loot or that the most active looters are now in jail. our local police station, about eight blocks away, now holds 700 people suspected of looting. since 94% (and i'm not making that number up) of honduras' prison population has never been tried and sentenced, who knows what will become of them. the most shocking aspect of the looting, for me however, has been how accepted it is. as long as one doesn't actually enter a store with a broken door or window, everything else is up for grabs. saddly, the curfew was put into place too late and there was no system to allow small store owners and market vendors the opportunity to recover their goods. the positive side: nancy, dona candida and other women of cohapaz worked for an entire day in the market to help clear the streets of mud. cohapaz is everywhere, and nancy works like crazy everywhere she goes. we're still without water. six days have passed and the water company says its likely to be five to ten days more. so we flush the toilet once a day, (tonight we used the water that we used to cook the spaghetti), i continue to bathe with a gallon of water, and someday, when the water comes back on i'll wash my clothes. fortunately, we are just two people and have no dirty diapers to wash. the streets are filled with people carrying water buckets and the pick-up trucks are loaded with fifty-gallon drums looking to be filled. it's so odd-looking seeing everyone carrying buckets in search of water, like when walkman's were first made and everyone started to carry them. like it's a new style or something. and as for food, the price gougers have not been stopped by government decrees. prices have skyrocketted and there is a great scarcity of just about everything you can eat, (not to mention fuels). we, like everyone, get by the best we can--buying something the minute we see it, knowing that it won't last. with any luck, the international contributions and the opening of the roads will alleviate this. we took a census of our members and their communities today. our meeting of coordinators was a mixture of very sad stories and somewhat optimistic (at least responsive) planning to address the crisis. our numbers: in the communities where cohapaz works there are over 200 families (over 1,200 people) in shelters due to homes lost and a still uncounted number of people living in homes and areas that are no longer safely habitable. the plan we devised calls for us to: 1) purchase and distribute emergency foods immediately for three hundred or more families; 2) distribute donated clothing; 3) work with the community health centers rather than try to distribute medicines ourselves; 4) plan activities for kids in the centers; and 5) reevaluate the situation next week. Our long term plans include using whatever funds that are left after the immediate emergency is over to build retaining walls and gutters in still-habitable areas that must be made safer, and to work with the municipality to see that everyone gets relocated to safer grounds to rebuild. the school year was officially announced closed yesterday. those students who passed their midterms passed their school year and those that did not, will repeat the year. such is the continuing crisis in honduras' public school system. last year less than half (49%) of the public elementary and highschool students in this country moved on to the next grade. none of this bodes well for the long term development of honduras, but that's another story. elsy, meanwhile, is back at medical school. she wasn't mobilized for the coast afterall, because things got so bad here. she now spends her time in the national university shelter, doing a census and promoting preventive medicine. you've all probably seen the national estimates already. no one knows for certain the level of the damage done or the risks that still exist, but here are the numbers reported by various agencies of the honduran government: 4,000 to 5,000 dead; 240,000 people left homeless in tegucigalpa alone; 8 police dead and 70 missing; 83 bridges destroyed; in the department (state) that elsy is from, colon, 10,000 homes destroyed and 300 people still missing; and on and on. obviously, we'll never know the exact numbers. the most important message is this: this is a disaster of huge proportions and this will setback honduras' development goals a long, long way. so while tonight i'm personally feeling a great relief with the good news about elsy's mother, tegucigalpa and honduras are still a long way from recovering. if you haven't sent a donation yet, believe me, we still need it. if you can circulate this or one of my earlier reports to your friends or coworkers, please do. we need your help. i wish that i could send everyone pictures with my emails, but i can't. if i could, however, i'd send two--one of a group of older women wielding hammers to save what little they could of their toppled homes, and the other of a child learning (via a game) about health and higiene. i have faith that honduras can be rebuilt. thanks, again, for everything! love, michael - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 00:36:48 -0500 From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: Plowshares Conviction http://www.bergen.com/region/peaceag199811062.htm Bergen peace activist convicted of sabotage=20 Friday, November 6, 1998 By ADAM GELLER Staff Writer Oliver Sachio Coe finally got his chance to put nuclear weapons on trial. But after three days in a federal courtroom in Colorado, it was the Ridgewood peace activist who was found guilty. A Denver jury convicted Coe late Wednesday of sabotage, conspiracy, and destruction of government property, charges stemming from the vandalism of a nuclear missile silo in August. Coe, 25, and a fellow activist each face up to 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. Under federal guidelines, they will probably be sentenced to far less. But Coe, who has been arrested numerous times in North Jersey and elsewhere for staging protests bordering on theater, is already behind bars. He and co-defendant Daniel Sicken refused to promise Wednesday to return for sentencing and were immediately detained. Coe and Sicken were arrested just after dawn Aug. 6 by military police who found them sitting atop a nuclear missile silo out on the Colorado prairie. The men had clipped through a fence at the site, battered the silo with sledgehammers, and decorated it with paint mixed with their own blood, authorities said. Coe freely admitted having done so, proclaiming it an attempt to beat swords into plowshares. The men could have accepted a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in exchange for a more limited sentence. But Coe said they were determined not to do so, because they wanted a chance to speak to a jury and "put nuclear weapons on trial." Coe could not be reached Thursday. But before the trial began Monday, he spoke optimistically about focusing attention on nuclear weapons and laughed off the possibility of prison. "I think it's one of the most worthwhile things I've ever done in my life," he said in a telephone interview. "A lot of peace work can be done from there [prison]. I don't see myself leaving the movement . . . I see myself as, maybe, being based in a different place." Coe and Sicken acted as their own attorneys during the trial. A small clutch of supporters, including some from North Jersey, carried signs of protest outside the courthouse before the trial began Monday. Some supporters, including Coe's mother, Adriana Coe of Park Ridge, testified on their behalf. The two activists told jurors they had no intent to interfere with national defense, arguing that the missile they attacked was intended for offensive "first-strike" use rather than to defend the nation. "The jury obviously rejected that, because they found them guilty," said Richard Stuckey, a Denver attorney who acted as Coe's advisory counsel. Stuckey said Coe took the verdict in stride. "He doesn't get angry," Stuckey said. "He was disappointed." Copyright =A9 1998 Bergen Record Corp.=20 _______________________________________________________________________ * Peace Through Reason - http://prop1.org - Convert the War Machines! * _______________________________________________________________________ - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 01:02:11 -0500 From: Peace through Reason Subject: (abolition-usa) NucNews: U.S. 11/7/98 1. http://ens-news.com/ens/nov98/1998-11-05-09.html ROCKY FLATS AGAIN SHIPPING URANIUM 2. http://www.mostnewyork.com/1998-11-05/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-10016 .asp?last6days=1 Tiny Device Big On Sniffing Smuggled Nukes 3. http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/natwadig03.htm Nuclear-plant anti-terrorism program cut 4. http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/1102/fcw-polcarl-11-2-98.html A LEGAL VIEW: What is the 'government contractor defense?' 5. http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/codes/N/docs/N541.htm Preliminary study doesn't disqualify Yucca Mountain - ----------------------------------- 1. http://ens-news.com/ens/nov98/1998-11-05-09.html Environmental News Service AmeriScan: November 5, 1998 ROCKY FLATS AGAIN SHIPPING URANIUM Shipments to transfer highly enriched uranium components from Rocky Flats, a former nuclear facility near Denver, Colorado, to the Y-12 facility at Oak ridge, Tennessee have resumed, the Department of Energy (DOE) Rocky Flats Field Office has announced. Jessier Roberson, DOE Rocky Flats manager said several shipments of "national security uranium" have safely arrive at Oak Ridge. More shipments will continue until all highly enriched uranium destined for Y-12 is removed. The target date for completion of the shipments is September 1999. The uranium has been stored at Rocky Flats since nuclear operations stopped there in late 1989. Shipments to Oak Ridge took place in 1996 and up to September 1997 to accomodate improvements at Y-12. The uranium will be stored at Oak Ridge pending final disposition. Times and routes of shipment are not announced because of "national security considerations," the DOE said. - ------------------------------ 2. http://www.mostnewyork.com/1998-11-05/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-10016 .asp?last6days=1 November 05, 1998 Tiny Device Big On Sniffing Smuggled Nukes By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM Daily News Staff Writer Federal law enforcement and intelligence officials call it a worst-case scenario - nuclear weapons material stolen from the former Soviet Union gets into terrorist hands. To combat the threat, the U.S. Customs Service has introduced a new high-tech weapon - a radiation pager that acts as a tiny Geiger counter. Slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes, it detects radioactive materials when an inspector walks past someone trying to smuggle them. U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly showed off the new device yesterday as he announced the agency is playing a key role in a U.S.-Russian anti-proliferation initiative unveiled at the Moscow summit on Sept. 2. It's an initiative, Kelly said, that hits home for city residents. "New York is the world's most important center for international trade, commerce and communications," he said. "It is also an important symbolic center of American democracy. It should be no surprise, then, that New York is a prized terrorist target." Extremists haven't been shy about wanting nuclear material. Osama Bin Laden, named in indictments as the force behind East Africa embassy bombings last summer, allegedly sent his emissaries shopping for weapons-grade material. Kelly said the collapse of the Soviet Union has weakened security that used to block thefts of the deadly commodity. - ------------------------------ 3. http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/natwadig03.htm November 3, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News Nuclear-plant anti-terrorism program cut The federal government has eliminated its only program for testing the ability of commercial nuclear-power plants to repel armed terrorists -- part of a cost-cutting reorganization of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Established in 1991, when the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War heightened fears about terrorist attacks, the program, while small, had identified serious security lapses at nearly half the nation's 104 nuclear-power reactors. At one reactor, an agency team simulating an armed attack ``was able to reach and simulate sabotaging enough equipment to cause a core melt,'' said David Orrik, the NRC security specialist who directed the counter-terrorism program known as Operational Safeguards Response Evaluations, or OSRE. The program had sparked complaints by some in the nuclear-power industry that it was too costly -- although others had praised the program for improving their security plans. - ------------------------------ 4. http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1998/1102/fcw-polcarl-11-2-98.html NOVEMBER 2, 1998 A LEGAL VIEW: What is the 'government contractor defense?' By Carl Peckinpaugh A company official raised the following questions: Can a government contractor be found liable to third parties who might be injured as a result of the contractor's work? Does it make any difference if the government controls the way the work is done? In general, a government contractor can be held liable to third parties for damages caused in contract performance in the same way as it might under a commercial contract. [See United States v. Boyd, 378 U.S. 39 (1964), in which it was ruled that government contractors are not automatically cloaked with governmental immunity.] However, in some cases, a contractor in compliance with government specifications may be able to assert a "government contractor defense" to escape claims by injured persons. In the landmark Boyle v. United Technologies Corp. [487 U.S. 500 (1988)], the U.S. Supreme Court discussed the government contractor defense in a case involving a Marine pilot who was killed when his helicopter crashed. The pilot's father sued the manufacturer of the helicopter under Virginia state law, claiming negligence in the design of the helicopter. The jury awarded $725,000, but the appeals court reversed the decision. In its review, the Supreme Court first determined that issues relating to civil tort liability arising out of government contracts were "uniquely federal interests" because they involve U.S. contracts, and indirectly, the civil liability of federal officials. In addition, "the federal government's interest in the procurement of equipment is implicated by suits such as the present one even though the dispute is one between private parties." The court also found that a significant conflict exists between these uniquely federal interests and state law. According to the court, the Federal Tort Claims Act exempts the government from suits based on the exercise of discretion by a government official in selecting designs of military equipment. The court believed that the same exemption should apply to contractors under certain conditions. According to the court: "Liability for design defects in military equipment cannot be imposed, pursuant to state law, when (1) the United States approved reasonably precise specifications, (2) the equipment conformed to those specifications, and (3) the supplier warned the United States about the dangers in the use of the equipment that were known to the supplier but not to the United States." Since the Boyle decision was issued, a split of opinion has developed among the federal circuit courts regarding the applicability of the government contractor defense in nonmilitary procurements. The 3rd, 7th and 11th circuits have held that the government contractor defense is available to all government contractors. [See Carley v. Wheeled Coach, 991 F.2d 1117 (3d Cir. 1993); Boruski v. United States, 803 F.2d1421, 1430 (7th Cir. 1986); Burgess v. Colorado Serum Co., 772 F.2d 844, 846 (11th Cir. 1985).] Trial courts in other circuits have reached the same conclusion. [See, for example, Yeroshefsky v. Unisys Corp., 962 F. Supp. 710 (D. Md. 1997); Andrew v. Unisys Corp., 936 F. Supp. 821 (W.D. Ok. 1996).] In contrast, the 9th Circuit has ruled that the defense is available to military contractors only. [See in re Hawaii Federal Asbestos Cases, 960 F.2d 806 (9th Cir. 1992).] Some trial courts have reached the same conclusion. [See, for example, in re Chateaugay Corp., 146 B.R. 339 (S.D.N.Y. 1992); Johnston v. United States, 568 F. Supp. 351 (D. Kan. 1983).] Several district courts have expanded the scope of the defense, applying it to performance-based contracts as well as more traditional contracts for the procurement of goods. For example, in Richland-Lexington Airport District v. Atlas Properties Inc. [854 F. Supp. 400, 422 (D.S.C. 1994)], the defense was applied to a contract for the placement of toxic waste sites. In Lamb v. Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc. [835 F. Supp. 959 (W.D. Ky. 1993)], it was applied to a contract for the operation of a uranium enrichment facility. In Askir v. Brown & Root Services Corp. [No. 95 Civ. 11008 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 23, 1997)], the defense was applied to a contract with the United States and the United Nations to provide military repair services and logistical support for humanitarian operations in Somalia. The exact parameters of the government contractor defense are somewhat in flux. Indeed, the conflicts among the lower courts almost guarantee that the Supreme Court will have to address the issue again. In some cases, at least, the defense can be used to shield companies from liability for actions in performing their government contracts. - -- Peckinpaugh is a member of the government contracts section of the law firm Winston & Strawn, Washington, D.C. This column addresses legal topics that arise in government acquisition and management of ADP resources. Readers are encouraged to submit topics by e-mail to carl@carl.com. - ---------------------------------- 5. http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/codes/N/docs/N541.htm Friday, October 23, 1998 Preliminary study doesn't disqualify Yucca Mountain Associated Press LAS VEGAS -- The Energy Department says a preliminary study of Yucca Mountain contains nothing that would disqualify the site as a nuclear waste repository. ``I've seen nothing in the viability assessment that would change the testimony that I gave before to Congress -- that we have found nothing so far that would disqualify Yucca Mountain,'' said Lake Barrett, acting chief of civilian nuclear waste storage. Barrett said he has completed a draft of the assessment, now being reviewed by senior management. The report will not be released until late this year. Barrett acknowledged the department is waiting until after the Nov. 3 elections so the study will not become a factor in this year's campaigns. The viability assessment is a key factor in the Yucca Mountain project. Over the objections of Nevada leaders, it will enable the Energy Department to proceed to the next phase of developing the site into a repository for thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the key to the report's significance is that it found nothing to disqualify Yucca Mountain: ``Of course, there's nothing to qualify it either,'' he said. ``We have had numerous reports that the minions in the DOE do this all the time. This is a preliminary report, it's under review, the secretary (of Energy) hasn't approved it. ... It means nothing, absolutely nothing.'' Reid said Nevada's most serious problem is not the viability of Yucca Mountain, but the threat of interim storage at the Nevada Test Site while other scientific studies move forward. President Clinton has promised to veto an interim storage bill, he said, but ``we have to maintain our 34 (Senate) votes'' to sustain the veto. Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he had heard rumors in Washington that the Clinton administration was trying to speed up the viability process. The findings of the report concern him, he said, because they could begin to undermine the president's promise to veto an interim storage bill. ``The president's promise is only if it's not viable or only until it's determined it's viable,'' said Ensign, who is trying to unseat Reid. ``If we're now one step closer to viability, that means we're one step closer to losing that promise. That's exactly why I said I don't want to see this bill get to the president's desk.'' He said he's not surprised the Energy Department doesn't plan to release the report until after the November elections: ``Harry Reid's running for re-election and they don't want anything to hurt him.'' Barrett emphasized the viability assessment will not designate Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for nuclear waste storage. That decision will not be made until July 1, 2001, when the department is scheduled to release a statement concluding whether Yucca Mountain is suitable. But supporters of nuclear waste storage in Nevada are eager to use the assessment to renew efforts in Congress to build an interim repository at the test site. The temporary site would be used until Yucca Mountain is ready to accept waste for burial. That won't occur before 2010. - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. 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