Most activists have heard this news by now. Rest assured we won’t be silent. Details of actions will be posted.
Today’s Salt Lake Tribune: Bomb Test: The Pentagon says it’s just a test and won’t lead to nuclear development
The “Divine Strake Test” is what it has been dubbed. It would
would use ammonium nitrate and fuel oil – a common explosive combination and the same used in the Oklahoma City bombing, only 280 times larger.
It is expected to throw a plume of dust as high as 10,000 feet into the air. Computers on the ground will measure the shockwaves and damage to the tunnel so models can be made, according to Pentagon budget documents, “to improve the warfighter’s confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage.”
The blast would be five times larger than the largest existing conventional weapon, but many times smaller than the smallest nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. Similar tests have been conducted in the past at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The Pentagon has said it plans to detonate 700 tons of explosives above a buried tunnel at the Nevada Test Site in June.
Congressman Jim Matheson says:
“I think this is a precursor for the development of nuclear weapons. I’ve had that suspicion about this administration all along,” Matheson said. “I want to get answers to this before they have the test in June.”
While this is a noble statement, I just don’t believe the latter part of it. Matheson has been a supporter of the Bush Administration’s Iraq campaign and war efforts. I know this from personal experience with Mr. Matheson, having been part of an arrest action in his office in 2003 and then in a meeting with him and several of my activist colleagues as a follow-up to that action. I would like to think the Mr. Matheson is sincere, but actions speak louder than words and his past actions just have not proven that he is opposed to nuclear anything.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 