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U.S. Enters New Nuclear Age as Bush Seeks Funds for New Generation
of Nukes
V.A. Nurse Accused of Sedition After Publishing Letter Critical
of Bush on Katrina, Iraq
U.S. Enters New Nuclear Age as Bush Seeks Funds for
New Generation of Nukes
A new nuclear age appears to be on the horizon. President
Bush recently asked Congress for $27 million to help jumpstart
the country's first new nuclear weapons program in two decades.
As we broadcast from New Mexico - the center of the country's
nuclear weapons program - we speak with Greg Mello of the
Los Alamos Study Group. [includes rush
transcript]
"We are on the verge of an exciting time."
Those were the recent words of the nation's top nuclear weapons
executive, Linton Brooks. Here in New Mexico - the center
of the country's nuclear weapons program - a new nuclear age
appears to be on the horizon. Bush recently asked Congress
for $27 million to help jumpstart the country's first new
nuclear weapons program in two decades. The money will be
used to fund a competition between the Los Alamos and the
Lawrence Livermore laboratories to find and design a new generation
of nuclear bombs to replace the country's entire nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile in another major development in the country's quest
for new nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Britain conducted a
joint underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site last
week. Anti-nuclear activists including the mayors of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in Japan denounced the test, the first in nearly
two years. In Hiroshima, the peace watchtower at the Peace
Memorial Museum -- which displays the number of days since
the last nuclear test -- was reset to zero.
V.A. Nurse Accused of Sedition After Publishing Letter
Critical of Bush on Katrina, Iraq
A Veterans Affairs nurse in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was
investigated for sedition after she wrote a letter to a local
newspaper criticizing the Bush administration's handling of
Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. In her first broadcast
interview, we speak with Laura Berg, as well as an attorney
with the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union. [includes rush
transcript]
On Capitol Hill, the Senate has moved one step closer to
renewing the Patriot Act. The Senate voted 84 to 15 on Wednesday
to end a filibuster led by Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin.
After Wednesday's vote, Feingold proceeded to read the Bill
of Rights from the Senate floor. Feingold has long called
on the Senate to add measures to preserve civil liberties.
Here in Albuquerque, a local Veterans Affairs nurse has felt
the crack down on civil liberties firsthand. In September,
shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck, Laura Berg wrote a
letter to the Alibi, a local newspaper, criticizing the Bush
administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq
war. Berg wrote, "as a VA nurse working with returning...vets,
I know the public has no sense of the additional devastating
human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder."
She urged readers to, "act forcefully to remove a government
administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious
deceit."
The response to Berg's letter was harsh. Her office computer
was seized. And the government announced it was investigating
her for sedition - that's right, sedition.
V.A. human resources chief Mel Hooker wrote in a letter to
Berg, "the Agency is bound by law to investigate and
pursue any act which potentially represents sedition."
To date the VA has yet to issue a public apology to Berg.
But pressure is building. In Washington, New Mexico Sen. Jeff
Bingaman has asked Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson
to thoroughly investigate the VA's actions. Bingaman wrote
"In a democracy, expressing disagreement with the government's
actions does not amount to sedition or insurrection. It is,
and must remain, protected speech."
- Laura Berg, Veterans Affairs nurse in Albuquerque.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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