To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
Subject: RE: Newsletter
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 10:54:00 +0100
Russell,
Thanks very much for your efforts on this newsletter - they have been extremely important. Unfortunately I have to ask to be taken off your list because of time constraints & the enormous burden of email I am currently dealing with; also because I am focusing my efforts now on depleted uranium. Keep up the good work!
----- END OF FIRST INCOMING EMAIL FROM CATHERINE EULER IN THE UK -----
----- MY FIRST RESPONSE: -----
Hi!
Thanks for your email (shown below). I think the D. U. problem is extremely important and I have already done many issues on it, so I am deeply saddened that you have decided to leave the newsletter for that reason. Here is a listing of the articles we have done on D.U. specifically, or where it is prominently discussed, in reverse chronological order:
Dr. Rosalie Bertell on Depleted Uranium dangers
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0157.htm
Depleted Uranium: A philosophical reply to New Scientist
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0152.htm
NATO FORCES DEPLETED OF TRUTH REGARDING DEPLETED URANIUM
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0139.htm
In #134 we have "50 useful links":
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0134.htm
One is to this: Radioactive Battlefields of the 1990s (by the Military Toxics Project's Depleted Uranium Citizens' Network):
http://www.antenna.nl/wise-database/uranium/dmtp.html
The effects of Depleted Uranium are mentioned also in this newsletter:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0133.htm
Hans Karow deplores D. U. as well, in this newsletter:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0130.htm
BBC NEWS report: Further confirmation of D.U. use in Balkans:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0125.htm
Depleted Uranium use in Yugoslavia confirmed (again):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0124.htm
NATO bombs Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0123.htm
BBC - Pentagon confirms depleted uranium use:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0122.htm
1994 article on Depleted Uranium available online:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0120.htm
Here's the article that one links to:
http://cci.glasnet.ru/antinuclear/NATOTANK.HTM
How much D. U. is being used in Yugoslavia?
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0118.htm
Radioactivity in the Balkans; US confirmation of DU use (forwarded to us by you!):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0116.htm
"I am ashamed of what my country is doing in Yugoslavia" (this entire issue is basically about Depleted Uranium):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0114.htm
U.S. DoD "solves" a burning problem regarding its use of Depleted Uranium:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0074.htm
A STOP CASSINI Special Report: Depleted Uranium (from October, 1997):
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/nltr0051.htm
So as you can see, I am baffled beyond words by your dropping off in order to focus on the Depleted Uranium issue. What newsletter has covered the topic more frequently or in greater depth than mine?
Besides, right now every reasonable-thinking anti-nuclear person should be concentrating on joining with Dr. Helen Caldicott regarding de-alerting the missiles and shutting down the nukes prior to Y2K, which is not to say D.U. is not a continuing problem, but in the scheme of things, there are other things to concentrate on at this time as well, and we all need to wear many hats. The Y2K-nuclear issue needs your voice, Catherine, and I hope you will reconsider your decision since we will be covering not only that issue, but also, we will continue to cover the D.U. debate as well.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
----- END OF MY FIRST RESPONSE, THIS MORNING -----
----- SECOND INCOMING EMAIL FROM CATHERINE EULER IN THE UK: -----
From: "Euler, Catherine [CES]"
This is true, you have done a lot on DU. Maybe what I need to do instead is ask you to switch my address from my address at work (where I feel overwhelmed) to my email address at home, where I can handle the information on these issues more effectively. Can you do that? I would really appreciate it; and I would prefer it to not being on the list at all! My home email address is: [we'll omit it -- rdh]
I agree, the Y2K de-alerting is a priority, but in England the Y2K situation is simply not receiving the huge amount of hype it is receiving in the US. I would venture that this is the same for the rest of Europe. The whole Y2K issue has been extremely muted here, whereas in the States everyone seemed to be talking about it & it was in much of the media. I am afraid to say that really, honestly, it still seems like something of a speculation to me, albeit an unimaginably expensive one, like Cassini. The document that someone purported to have from the US Navy or was it Army? I felt unsure of the source, and it did not therefore move me to major action. On DU I know it has already been used - it is not that maybe someday in the future it might happen. I know there has been a petition circulating for de-alerting to take place, and I have signed it, but really I feel like I need more sound, basic, grounded, referenced information before I begin to put more of my energy in this
direction at the moment.
I have just returned from the UN in Geneva, where I have been lobbying and working on the DU issue. I gave a statement on DU to the Sub Commission on Human Rights; if you are interested in publishing this in your newsletter, I will forward it on to you. Let me know.
Hi!
Thank you for your followup (shown below) and I'm happy to switch the email address to send the newsletter to. I really, truly hope to keep the volume down, both by linking to things instead of presenting them directly and by writing for other venues if possible, such as the item I managed somehow to get in SPACE NEWS.
Two addendums to my previous email, first, I wanted to mention that many of those items were first made available in my newsletter (in particular the things by Pamela Blockey-O'Brien) and second, that the link to newsletter #174 should have linked to #74 instead.
One more thing: The Y2K "hype" in the U. S. is actually quite minimal, with all of it that there is improperly focused on things like food and water and the hype itself (hype about the hype) instead of where it should be focused: meltdowns and nuclear war.
I have attached a statement I wrote yesterday regarding the Y2K-nuclear issue, which I sent to Dr. Caldicott, who described it in a letter this morning as "very interesting" and I hope you feel the same way and that it explains the dangers. It is only an introduction of course, but there are a number of experts who are offering more technical explanations as well.
D.U. is indeed an issue, and has been for some 40 years since they first started making it into weapons, although it's true that the first use was reportedly during the Gulf War. While researching my report on the Beatty, Nevada nuclear waste site, I became aware that the D.U. weapons research actually had begun many years ago.
Did you know that the way the shavings were gotten rid of ("shavings" are the metal that has been ground away to shape the warheads and counterbalances and whatnot) was often to burn the stuff? This I learned in a recently declassified book someone told me about (I published in one of the newsletters how to get the information (#122)), It was almost invariably mixed with oil because oil is used as a lubricant and coolant when grinding metals of all sorts. So they would have these 55 gallon drums of shavings and oil, and they would simply burn them! I don't know if they still burn it like that but I wouldn't be surprised.
One last thing. You are a public figure in the anti-nuclear movement -- indeed, a member of the very group which has so successfully silenced my voice over the past two and a half years regarding Cassini. I would never be able to promise you privacy in any correspondence with me. Furthermore, unencrypted email is already essentially a public forum which anyone can intercept and read. What you do is news, how you interact with other activists during this time of crises (Y2K, Cassini, D.U., etc.) is news, and lastly, In the past I have been lied to by members of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and I do not wish to engage in private discussions of any sort with members of that organization, as no good has ever come of such secrecy.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Hi!
I forgot to add that I would be happy to republish your comments about D.U. in an upcoming newsletter.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
We have been sending OOSA the newsletters for many months now but the only letter we had ever gotten back came a few weeks after the flyby. Here it is:
At 10:47 AM 9/13/99 +0200, OOSA.Mailbox@oosa.un.or.at wrote:
unsubscribe
Regarding your email [shown above], isn't this the Office of Outer Space Agendas or something like that at the UN? If so, our STOP CASSINI newsletters continue to be very relevant and we don't think you have the right to close yourselves off from public criticism. Please advise.
Thank you,
At 10:46 AM 9/14/99 +0200, OOSA wrote:
Everybody has the right to decide what to subscribe or not.
Unsubscribe - DO IT as you are obliged to.
To Whom it May Concern:
I asked you if you are indeed the United Nations office for Outer Space affairs, or have I somehow got the wrong address? Since I believe that is the address I am mailing my newsletter to, and since I KNOW without a doubt that the UN has set up rules and regulations for nuclear space shots which allow NASA and other nations to commit CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, you do not have the right to simply "unsubscribe". You NEED an education!
These newsletters contain important information which, if YOU would listen, would save lives. I have enclosed a quiz about plutonium. Is there anyone at your office who could pass it? Even one person? I doubt it. Yet you set regulations which can kill millions! GENOCIDE is a crime, and to turn away from the facts will not cleanse your hands of the blood that is upon them.
LEARN ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE PERMITTING -- as you are obliged to, for the sake of humanity.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
At 08:58 AM 9/14/99 -0500, Terry McDonald wrote:
Dear Mr. Hoffman,
Please remove hci.space@chron.com from your email list.
Thank you, ****************************************************************
To: Terry McDonald, Space Chronicles (a part of The Houston Chronicle)
Dear Terry McDonald:
Yours was one of many newspapers which has a web page about Cassini, created for the flyby (you may have others as well):
Here's what your paper wrote about Cassini's flyby there:
"The spacecraft approached Earth at about 72,000 mph and sped away at about 80,000 mph, said Bob Mitchell, Cassini's program director."
In fact it approached Earth at about 35,000 miles per hour and left at about 45,000 miles per hour (give or take a few thousand mph, I haven't seen the definitive numbers). I guess no one at your paper knows the difference between Earth-relative speeds and sun-relative speeds. (Don't feel too bad, many other papers wrote like they haven't got a clue.) The same article starts out "Cassini swung by its home planet August 16, 1999" which is just plain wrong -- it was August 17th in the U.S.A. and August 18th GMT. How do YOU explain such sloppy reporting?
Nowhere in your report do you mention the opposition to the mission, and of course you don't link to our web site which has been explaining the dangers of NASA's plutonium for nearly three years now, but you've ignored it while hundreds of thousands of people have visited our web site (tens of thousands of "hits" each week, and we've published those numbers and you can ask our ISP (American Digital Network) if you doubt them).
Is there ONE PERSON at SPACE CHRONICLES who can answer THE CASSINI QUIZ? It's really not that hard -- if you know the facts about plutonium. But I doubt ANYONE at SPACE CHRONICLES can do it.
If someone there takes a crack at the quiz, or if you add a link to our web site, or if you give me a guest column to explain the opposing views, or if you do just ONE fair report on the opposition to Cassini, I'll drop you from the list.
But the fact is, the reporters at SPACE CHRONICLES need an education in the pollution NASA risked with Cassini and continues to risk with as many as 12 more nuclear missions being planned. These missions threaten all peoples of the world and Houston is a prime area for space activities. Thus, it would be a crime against humanity to drop you from my distribution list.
The quiz is followed by your incoming letter, and then by a series of links you should find useful.
Please tell me if SPACE CHRONICLES has done any articles on the danger to satellites from an accidental nuclear war during Y2K. The first salvo would undoubtedly be a nuclear EMP which would wipe out many if not most (if not all) of the orbiting satellites your readers are putting up which happen to be in a line-of-sight with the blast when it occurs. (I would be happy to write a guest column about that, as well.)
Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing more honest reporting in SPACE CHRONICLES soon.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Hoffman
I should also note that they described where Cassini is now as "the final leg" of the flight to Saturn, but in fact, there is a flyby of Jupiter coming up at the turn of the millennium (the real one, not the Y2K one that occurs this year), and THEN "the final leg" begins. -- rdh
09/14/99 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 7.202
RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE
14 STAR WARS PROTEST AT VANDENBERG
pmeidell@igc.org writes:
From: Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 7 1999
CONTACT: Bruce Gagnon (352) 337-9274 (Global Network) Andrew
The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has
announced a demonstration at Vandenberg AFB California on
Saturday September 25 to oppose the first-ever test of the
National Missile Defense (NMD) system. The non-violent
demonstration will begin at 1:00 PM and be held at the Vandenberg
main gate (Route 1).
The missile test is scheduled to be launched from Vandenberg on
September 29 and is supposed to be impacted by a second missile
launched from a Kwajalein island in the Pacific Ocean. Data
during the test will be gathered by orbiting Global Positioning
Satellites (GPS) and fed to the Battle Management Center which
will send steering commands via satellite.
Congress has voted to allow the NMD system to move forward as
"soon as technically feasible". The Clinton administration is
now beginning to consider circumventing the 1972 ABM Treaty that
outlaws the development of weapons systems like the NMD. Clinton
is scheduled to make a final deployment decision on the NMD
system in June 2000. Over $120 billion has been spent to date on
Star Wars planning by the Pentagon.
Coming from Florida for the protest will be Global Network
Coordinator Bruce Gagnon who said We are holding this important
action at Vandenberg because Star Wars must be stopped. People
all over the planet are now organizing against this launch. We
cannot allow the U.S. to unilaterally decide to move the arms
race into space. U.S. Space Command documents say they intend to
‘control and dominate space’. We intend to organize to keep
space for peace.
Among the California groups endorsing and participating in the
September 25 protest are: California Peace Action; Southern
California Federation of Scientists; Grandmothers for Peace
International; American Friends Service Committee (Pacific S.W.
Office); Ventura County Green Party; and Abolition 2000.
Check the Global Network website at:
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk
Pamela S. Meidell Director The Atomic Mirror P.O. Box 220 Port
The Atomic Mirror is part of Abolition 2000: A Global Network to
Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
Pamela S. Meidell
Dear Ms Meidell;
I have no doubt that Bruce Gagnon is a government agent. His protests are invariably held to disrupt other anti-nukes, anti-weapons in space efforts.
Just thought you might like to know. My opinions are based on several years of watching him disenfranchise activists opposed to Cassini.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Statement:
My opinions against nuclear power was formed from conversations with Dr. John W. Gofman (who isolated the first working quantities of plutonium), the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan (who was known as the "father of health physics"), Dr. Ernest Sternglass (who has done statistical studies about LLR), Dr. Jay Gould (ditto), Dr. Horst Poehler, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Dr. Ross Wilcock and dozens of activists, as well as many others on both sides of the nuclear debates, including ex military nuke expert Jack Shannon (responsible for the design of the D2G Navy reactor, the most widely used reactor in the U. S. navy), award-winning investigative reporter Karl Grossman, ecologist and human rights advocate Pamela Blockey-O'Brien, etc. Also, I've read a few dozen books on the various subjects. And scads of government documents purporting to explain how something so dangerous can be safe.
Professionally, my pump training software is used throughout the pump industry and even in some nuclear power plants around the world to train their staff about mechanical pumps. Any errors in my writing are regrettably my own, but I believe it would take a preponderance of errors to invalidate my basic position on these issues.
*************************************************************
Hoffman's Y2K Preparedness Information:
Learn about The Effects of Nuclear War here:
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:24:22 -0400
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 09:39:54 -0400 (EDT)
The sad part is that NASA and Goldin are reaping the consequences of
converting NASA from a federal agency with the whole country's good in mind
to what looks to many as a propaganda bureau for the Clinton Administration.
I saw Goldin on ABC this morning, fawning over how wonderful Clinton and Gore
were in helping him save the Kennedy Space Center. This extreme toadyism has
turned the stomachs of many pro-space veterans and has created what all
public policy experts preach you must avoid -- uselessly offending enough
people who have the chance to lash back in revenge, and creating -- where
there was none before -- a vocal opposition. As the House space committees
turn out to have been right and NASA wrong on the consequences of Russian
partnership, NASA's response is internal mockery and contempt for anyone who
wasn't caught up in their "naive enthusiasm" (Goldin's excuse for
consistently bad judgment). By treating people who disagreed with them as
enemies, NASA management has converted many of those people into real
enemies, and has now reaped the terrible consequences (for America's future,
not for Goldin) of this arrogant, stupid attitude.
NASA needs to be told in no uncertain terms NEVER to launch nuclear rockets of any type ever again!
To learn about the absurd excuses NASA used to launch Cassini and its 72.3 pounds of plutonium in 1997, ask them for the 1995 Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini mission, and all subsequent documentation. At the same time, be sure to ask them for ANY and ALL documentation available on future uses of plutonium in space, including MILITARY, CIVILIAN, or "OTHER" (just in case they make a new category somehow!). To get this information, contact:
Cassini Public Information
Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:
Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.
Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.
President Bill Clinton
Vice President Albert Gore
Secretary William Cohen
Secretary Bill Richardson
Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.
Thanks for reading! Welcome new subscribers!
Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
To subscribe, simply email the editor at
To unsubscribe email me and say
Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
Subject: RE: Newsletter
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 16:40:00 +0100
Please don't forward this message to your newsletter; I suspect others may feel similarly though??? I would prefer it, if you have the energy, that your newsletter were one means by which such information could be circulated.
Cat
----- END OF SECOND INCOMING EMAIL FROM CATHERINE EULER IN THE UK -----
----- MY SECOND RESPONSE: -----
Attachment: Statement shown above in item #2
----- END OF MY SECOND RESPONSE -----
----- ADDENDUM TO MY SECOND RESPONSE: -----
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
----- END OF ADDENDUM TO MY SECOND RESPONSE -----
(2) United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs does not want to hear about the genocide they permit:
----- FIRST INCOMING EMAIL FROM OOSA: -----
----- END OF FIRST INCOMING EMAIL FROM OOSA -----
----- MY FIRST RESPONSE: -----
Russell Hoffman
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
----- END OF MY FIRST RESPONSE: -----
----- SECOND INCOMING EMAIL FROM OOSA: -----
----- END OF SECOND INCOMING EMAIL FROM OOSA -----
----- MY SECOND RESPONSE: -----
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
Attachment
FORTY-FOUR CASSINI QUESTIONS:
------ end of quiz -----
----- END OF MY SECOND RESPONSE -----
(3) SPACE CHRONICLES also doesn't want to learn anything
----- INCOMING EMAIL FROM SPACE CHRONICLES: -----
Terry
--
Terry McDonald || terry.mcdonald@chron.com
HoustonChronicle.com ||
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/space/
voice 281.286.2721 || pager 713.509.2320
****************************************************************
----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL FROM SPACE CHRONICLES -----
----- MY RESPONSE: -----
From: Russell Hoffman, founder and editor, STOP CASSINI newsletter
Re: Your letter to me (shown below)
Date: September 14th, 1999
http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/astronomy/cassini/
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
FORTY-FOUR CASSINI QUESTIONS:
[ as above ]
----- END OF MY RESPONSE -----
(4) GN on the move again: Gagnon organizing a protest at VAFB:
----- INCOMING ITEM SEEN IN "RADBULL" -----
globenet@afn.org
PROTEST PLANNED AT VANDENBERG AGAINST STAR WARS TEST
Page (510) 849-2272 (Northern Ca. Peace Action) Danielle
Babineau (310) 652-6572 (Southern Ca. Peace Action)
Hueneme California USA 93044 Tel: 805/985 5073 Fax: 805/985 7563
Email: pmeidell@igc.org
----- END OF INCOMING ITEM SEEN IN "RADBULL" -----
----- MY RESPONSE -----
Director The Atomic Mirror
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
Russell D. Hoffman, Carlsbad, California, Peace Activist, Environmentalist, High Tech Guru:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/whoisrdh.htm
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/y2k/index.htm
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm
----- END OF MY RESPONSE -----
(5) NASA is slitting its own throat; and the people know it:
----- INCOMING EMAIL FORWARDED TO US BY LARRY KLAES: -----
To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
From: Larry Klaes
Subject: Re: Storms
Reply-To: fpspace@SOLAR.RTD.UTK.EDU
Originator: fpspace@solar.cini.utk.edu
Sender: fpspace@SOLAR.RTD.UTK.EDU
From: JamesOberg@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Storms
X-Comment: Friends and Partners in Space
In a message dated 9/15/99 6:08:11 AM, you wrote:
Thanks to everyone who wrote the Senate, pleading NASA's case. And for
all of you who thought about doing it but never got around to it... well,
there's an old saying that people get the democracy that they deserve.
----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL FORWARDED BY LARRY KLAES -----
(6) United States Government official contact points:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011 or
(818) 354-6478
Here's NASA's "comments" email address:
comments@www.hq.nasa.gov
daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
or
dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20500; Ph. (202) 456-1111, Fax (202) 456-2461;
e-mail -- president@whitehouse.gov
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20500;Ph. (202) 456-1414, Fax (202)
456-2461; e-mail -- vicepresident@whitehouse.gov
1000 Defense
The Pentagon
Washington D.C. 20301
703-695-6352
Department of Energy (DoE)
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington D.C. 20585
202-586-6210
fax: 202-586-4403
(7) Subscription information:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
(Accept NO imitations!)
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
and state:
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length and subject matter. Thank you!
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Please distribute these newsletters EVERYWHERE!
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CASSINI TABLE OF CONTENTS
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First placed online September 22nd, 1999.
Last modified September 22nd, 1999.
Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman
Copyright (c) Russell D. Hoffman