[CPEO-MEF] Print Bites/nuclear secrets, UC contract, NIF etc.

[marylia@earthlink.net]

Greetings peace and environmental colleagues: Here are a few short items
for your reading pleasure... MK

Print Bites: All the News That Fits to Print

by Marylia Kelley
from Tri-Valley CAREs' December 2000 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

** Taking the Initiative. On November 13, even as the U.S. debated who had
won its presidency, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the two
nations negotiate drastic cuts in their long-range strategic nuclear
weapons. Putin had previously proposed that each nation limit its
long-range arsenal to 1,500 weapons-a number the U.S. summarily rejected as
too low. Now, Putin has put himself on the record as favoring an even
deeper cut. Will the U.S. please wake up and just say yes?

** It's the Mission, Stupid. Six top positions at Livermore Lab are now
vacant, more at one time than anyone can recall in the history of the Lab.
Robert Kuckuck, Livermore Lab's second-in-command, announced his retirement
in Nov. Already vacant are 4  of 10 Associate Director positions and the
director's post for LLNL's University Relations Program. Still, remaining
Lab managers tout NIF and nuclear weapons as the wave of the future. That
wave has passed, Livermore. It's high time - at long last - to transition
to a socially constructive, environmentally friendly "Green Lab" at Livermore.

** Speaking of Mission. On Nov. 15, the regents of the University of
California voted to negotiate  contract extensions for the 3 DOE labs it
manages-Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Lawrence Berkeley. According to
U.C., the contracts will be "fast-tracked" and may be completed by the end
of the year. No mention that the mission of Livermore Lab is part of the
management contract. No discussion of any meaningful changes. No open
process. Just more of the same, which will beget more of the same. Shame.

** Clinton Gets One Right. The CIA wanted it. The Senate Intelligence
Committee marked it up in a secret session. Tri-Valley CAREs railed against
it in the Nov. edition of Citizen's Watch. "It" is legislation that could
have meant prison terms for whistle blowers or anyone else "leaking"
information the government deemed secret. Written overbroadly, the bill
would have become, in essence, the first U.S. "official secrets act."
Existing law makes it a crime to release classified information that might
expose a foreign agent, assist a foreign power or threaten national
security. The new bill would have greatly expanded the kinds of secrets for
which criminal penalties might be imposed. Press reports indicated Clinton
was poised to sign it into law. And then, on Nov. 4, he... vetoed it.
Hooray, a small cheer rises up from the populace. (Well, at least a sigh of
relief.)

** Advice and Dissent. Recently, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board
(SEAB) finalized another in a long line of under-skeptical reviews of NIF.
Yawn. However, three SEAB members livened up the process by offering a
written dissent. Instead of racing ahead with construction of all 192 laser
beamlines, they reasoned, why not hit the pause button upon completion of
the first "bundle" (consisting of 8 beams) in 2004. Those beams should then
be tested to determine whether they met NIF's original performance
criteria, said the three members. However, the majority on the SEAB was
unwilling to seriously contemplate  any pause in construction. The board
voted to transmit its report "as is" to Secretary Richardson-along with a
letter outlining the dissenting view.

ends

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94550

<http://www.igc.org/tvc/> - is our web site, please visit us there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax

Working for peace, justice and a healthy environment since 1983, Tri-Valley
CAREs has been a member of the nation-wide Alliance for Nuclear
Accountability in the U.S. since 1989, and is a co-founding member of the
Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, the
U.S. Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the Back From the Brink
campaign to get nuclear weapons taken off hair-trigger alert.



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