Hello everyone. Do you remember
this?
The Pentagon is preparing to set off a record-breaking bang, detonating 635 tonnes of high explosives and sending a mushroom cloud into the sky over the Nevada desert. The blast, on June 2, codenamed Divine Strake, is likely to be the biggest controlled conventional explosion in military history, experts said, and is designed to test the impact of bunker-busting bombs aimed at underground targets. The blast comes at a time of rising tension with Iran over its nuclear programme. The US has refused to rule out military action and is considering the feasibility of destroying underground warhead development sites Iran is alleged to have built.
Remember how great it was when the local pressure got this ridiculous, chest-thumping test cancelled? Well, guess where they moved it to? Welcome to Bedford, Indiana. My fucking backyard.
Here's the skinny, via
Counterpunch:
More than two tons of cyanide compounds, 1,535 pounds of phosgene gas, the primary chemical in "mustard gas" chemical weapons, 1,318 pounds of methylene chloride, a human carcinogen, 2,387 pounds of carbon tetrachloride, another carcinogen and 1,650 pounds of chlorine, a poison, will be released from the giant explosion being suggested by the United States Department of Defense for southern Indiana in 2007 in southern Indiana
Bizarrely named "Divine Strake," the explosion is meant to mimic a nuclear bomb dropped on underground nuclear weapons facilities in Iran. While no nuclear material will be used in this weapons test, the huge amount of explosive material is nevertheless a deadly stew that could have devastating impacts on people's health in surrounding communities for years to come.
A limestone quarry owned by the giant highway builder, the Rogers Company in Lawrence County, near Spring Mill State Park and close to numerous populated areas is suggested as a possible site for the massive 1,400,000 pound explosion by DOD personnel, who have been stymied from setting the device off at the Nevada Test Site by outraged regional citizens.
The best part? They weren't going to tell anyone. They were under the impression that their previous tests of 3,000 lb bombs, which received little or no attention, meant that we would all be just fine with them dropping the big one in the dead of night. Isn't that sweet?
Needless to say, the locals aren't happy:
Furthermore the DoD intends to burn over 300 buildings at the Indiana Army Ammunition Depot north of Jeffersonville, because burning is the least expensive option for demolition. The DoD apparently is unconcerned about the high levels of lead and PCB contamination found in those buildings.
I can't tell you how incensed I am over this story. Why is the Department of Defense so unconcerned that it can put at grave risk the lives of the very citizens it's supposed to be "protecting?"
Surely I would expect your readers to be concerned about the negative health risks this poses to them. I urge your readers to write to Rep. Mike Sodrel, Honorable Evan Bayh, and Honorable Richard Lugar on this issue. I don't want to be breathing lead and mustard gas, do you?
-- Elaine Kitchel, New Albany
No, we don't want to be breathing in lead and mustard gas.
So what can you do? Help contact these politicians, and let them know that moving this test to another location, (especially one more populated than the desert), isn't fine.
- Senator Richard Lugar
Washington DC EMail Address:
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov
Washington DC Web Address:
http://lugar.senate.gov/
Campaign Web Address:
http://www.lugarcamp.com/
Washington DC Address
306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1401
Phone: 202-224-4814
Fax: 202-228-0360
- Senator Evan Bayh
Washington DC Web Address:
http://bayh.senate.gov/...
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://bayh.senate.gov/...
Washington DC Address
463 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5623
Fax: 202-228-1377
- Rep. Steve Buyer
Washington DC Web Address:
http://stevebuyer.house.gov/
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://www.house.gov/...
Washington DC Address
2230 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-1404
Phone: 202-225-5037
Fax: 202-225-2267
Please, please consider taking a few moments to contact any or all of these politicians and let them know you stand against such testing in beautiful Southern Indiana. If you are from Indiana, please also consider writing letters to your editors on this subject. They win by keeping this out of the media attention, and I refuse to lose by apathy.
Please, consider a recommend as well, if you can spare. This is something that needs to be faced full-steam early on, or else it will inevitably be too late.
Thank You.
--Just an FYI...you can check out Rep. Steve Buyer's opponent in the IN-4 race, David Sanders. A great candidate, and a great guy, he deserves any support he can get, and also has been very vocal in his opposition to this testing. Steve Buyer's opinion on these sort of things?
Don't send special forces in there to sweep. We'd be very naive to believe that biotoxins and chemical agents were not in these caves. Put a tactical nuclear device in and close these caves for a thousand years," said Buyer in an interview with Indianapolis television station WRTV.
Also, h/t to
ManfromMiddletown's diary on this earlier.
(Originally posted at Deny My Freedom)