Trump says Iran has not ‘lived up to the spirit’ of the nuclear agreement

As reported by the Washington Post. The article opens by pointing out that:

President Trump on Thursday criticized the nuclear deal with Iran just day after his secretary of state certified that Iran was complying with the terms of the agreement, calling it “terrible” and “as bad as I've ever seen negotiated.”

The article also quotes Trump regarding the nuclear sabre-rattling between the U.S. and North Korea.

As reported by Margaret Harrington on "Nuclear-Free Future Conversation" in 2015, groups like Beyond Nuclear and Physicians for Social Responsibility not only celebrated the Iran Nuclear Deal as a non-violent alternative to armed conflict, but also worked to defend it against those who would overturn it.

Advocates Urge Trump to De-escalate with North Korea, Not Ratchet Up Threats & Military Aggression

As reported by Democracy Now!

Veterans for Peace t.v. ads warn about nuclear war with North Korea

Veterans for Peace and KnowDrones.com press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Wednesday, March 29, 2017
CONTACT:  Coordinator, KnowDrones.com (914) 806-6179  nickmottern@gmail.com

Beale AFB, CA – President Trump's screaming face is depicted in a nuclear blast mushroom cloud in a controversial television commercial debuting on CNN and other cable networks in cities near a major drone base here in Marysville CA not too far from the CA capital in Sacramento.

The spot, which can be seen at https://youtu.be/7MgnknTu8I4, is sponsored by military veterans from Veterans for Peace and KnowDrones.com. It urges Beale AFB drone operators not to help Trump "kill North Koreans." The spot begins with Martin Luther King Jr. calling for peace not war, and ends with a nuclear explosion.

Two other anti-drone war commercials - https://youtu.be/heaW9aVPRMw      https://youtu.be/y7kF4tp_OE8 -  are also running in tandem with the Trump spot on CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC and other cable networks. Those spots charge that more than 7,500 civilians have been killed by U.S. drones, far more than the 100 or so claimed by the Obama Administration.

"A U.S. attack on North Korea will almost certainly trigger a massive artillery bombardment of South Korea and attempts at a nuclear response that could include one or more nuclear missiles reaching Japan as well as South Korea.  North Korea also has chemical weapons," warned Nick Mottern of KnowDrones.com, which helped produce the TV commercials. 

As Jonathan Marshall points out in a Consortiumnews.com article, the U.S. is also vulnerable to North Korea shipping nuclear weapons into U.S. ports. "Millions of people would almost certainly die in South Korea and Japan.  Millions more Americans might die from nuclear retaliation against U.S. port cities and infrastructure. Every American would suffer the staggering economic and moral consequences." 

 – 30 –

The warnings in the final paragraph above harken back to the letter, conceived and written by Leo Szilard, but signed by Albert Einstein, to FDR, that initiated the Manhattan Project race for the atomic bomb.

The letter warned:

In the course of the last four months it has been made probable — through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilárd in America — that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable — though much less certain — that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air. (emphasis added)

In August 1945, however, the U.S. did attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan with atomic bombs, using bombers to deliver them.

North Korea's current lack of a missile (let alone bomber) deliver system for its nuclear weapons is why Veterans for Peace and KnowDrones.com have warned about their potential delivery by boat, as retribution for any U.S. military attack.

The concluding paragraph of the Einstein-Szilard Letter entry on Wikipedia reports:

Einstein did not work on the Manhattan Project. The Army denied him the work clearance needed in July 1940, saying his pacifist leanings made him a security risk,^[22] although he was allowed to work as a consultant to the United States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance.^[23][24] He had no knowledge of the atomic bomb's development, and no influence on the decision for the bomb to be dropped.^[13][22] According to Linus Pauling, Einstein later regretted signing the letter because it led to the development and use of the atomic bomb in combat, adding that Einstein had justified his decision because of the greater danger that Nazi Germany would develop the bomb first.^[25] In 1947 Einstein told Newsweek magazine that "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing."

Two of Einstein's most famous anti-nuclear quotes come from the same era, in the aftermath of the atomic bombings that he so ironically had a more than indirect hand in.

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” ---Albert Einstein, May 1946

"To the village square we must carry the facts of atomic energy. From there must come America's voice." ---Albert Einstein, June 1946

Trump's finger on the nuclear button

Action alert by Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen:

As it stands, only one person on earth can order the launch of America’s nuclear arsenal.

He doesn’t need approval from any other living soul to set off a global thermonuclear cataclysm.

He doesn’t even have to wait for a congressional declaration of war.

His name is Donald Trump.

Public Citizen — along with allies like the American Friends Service Committee, the Council for a Livable World and the Union of Concerned Scientists — is supporting urgent legislation in Congress to ensure that no president can independently initiate a nuclear strike.

Tell Congress: Pass legislation NOW to prohibit the president from unilaterally starting a nuclear war.

Add your name today.

Thank you for taking action to restrain Trump.

Onward,

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen

Energy Department whistleblower finally gets justice, despite agency neglect

As reported by the Washington Post, "A letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry from Wyden [Democratic U.S. Senator from Oregon] and Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) gives the Energy Department its share of the blame," regarding the case of vindicated Savannah River Nuclear Site whistleblower Sandra Black.