In article <bgom6o$cha$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, map@economicdemocracy.org
says...

"It is shocking, disgusting and disgraceful that US defence department
officials are meeting [to plan new nuclear weapons] in the very week
of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in which
over 110,000 people died"

"The US is pressing the world to get rid of nuclear weapons yet is
doing the exact opposite itself."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3126141.stm

A two-day secret conference to plan the future of the American nuclear
arsenal, including the development of so-called mini-nukes, is being
held this week at StratCom, the headquarters of US Strategic Command
in Nebraska.

Some 150 top scientists and senior officials will meet at the Offutt
Air Force Base and, according to an agenda leaked earlier this year by
an anti-nuclear group, one of their panels will tackle the issue of
mini-nukes.

In the jargon preferred by those in this business, they are called
"small build" weapons - weapons of about one kiloton, 1,000 tonnes
(2,000,000 pounds "small") of explosive.

This "Nuclear Posture Review" was sent by the Pentagon to Congress in
December 2001.

A report from the House of Representatives subcommittee on national
security said in February 2003: "The president should have options -
the options of conventional forces, of precision conventional weapons
and of nuclear weapons that are capable of holding all targets at risk."

There has been an anti-nuclear demonstration at StratCom this week by
the Los Angeles Study group, the organisation which leaked the agenda.

And numerous anti-nuclear pressure groups have criticised the
mini-nuke plan.

In Britain, Ben Miller, a spokesman the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament, told BBC News Online: "It is shocking, disgusting and
disgraceful that US defence department officials are meeting in the
very week of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in which over 110,000 people died. 

"The US is pressing the world to get rid of nuclear weapons yet is
doing the exact opposite itself."

In the United States, Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians
for Social Responsibility, said: "Why in the world would we move
towards manufacturing small nuclear weapons and then expect that no
one will ever try to steal, beg or borrow one and use it against us?" 
--
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is
a merger of state and corporate power" -Benito Mussolini.

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and
demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of
justice and mercy"  -- Wendell Berry

= = = =

STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?

= = = =

Sorry we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email

For more information: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace)
And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general)