For Nuclear Security Beyond Seoul, Eradicate Land-Based "Doomsday" Missiles

This article was originally published by the Christian Science Monitor. We think it is extremely important, though, which is why it is on our blog as well.

President Obama and other world leaders gathered at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, this week to address threats posed by unsecured nuclear material. If Mr. Obama is truly concerned about nuclear safety, he should seriously consider doing away with the 450 inter-continental ballistic missiles deployed and ready to fire at Russia on a moment's notice.

Last month we were among 15 protesters who were arrested in the middle of the night at Vandenberg Air Force Base, some 70 miles north of Santa Barbara, Calif. We were protesting the imminent test flight of a Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile.

The Air Force rationale for doing these tests is to ensure the reliability of the US nuclear deterrent force; but launch-ready land-based nuclear-armed ballistic missiles are the opposite of a deterrent to attack. In fact, their very deployment has the potential to launch World War III and precipitate human extinction – as a result of a false alarm.

Sense of Urgency Leads to Civil Disobedience at Vandenberg

David Krieger, Fr. Louis Vitale and
Daniel Ellsberg. Photo by Jim Haber.

In the early hours of Saturday, February 25, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation President David Krieger was arrested with 14 others protesting the test launch of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The Minuteman is the United States' land-based missile, 450 of which sit in silos around the Midwest on hair-trigger alert, ready to be fired at a moment's notice. Saturday's launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base targeted the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

I had the chance to ask David a few questions about his arrest now that he has had a couple of days to reflect on it.

RW: What made you decide after 30 years of working as President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation to get arrested protesting this missile launch?

Sept. 21: Peace 1, Nuclear Missiles 0

I just got word that the US Air Force has postponed the planned test of a Minuteman III nuclear missile. It was originally scheduled for September 21, the International Day of Peace. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, together with organizations around the world and many thousands of our supporters, worked hard to register our ardent opposition to this test.

Of course there has been no government statement saying, "We were wrong to schedule this test on the International Day of Peace and now recognize the problems inherent in our continued reliance on missile testing and nuclear weapons." Nor will there ever be such a statement. But we should all be proud of our work against this test, and we must continue to spread the message that the only to stay safe from a nuclear attack is to implement a Nuclear Weapons Convention for the phased, verifiable, transparent and irreversible elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

Anti-Nuclear Resisters in Court

I just got back from court. I went in support of two dedicated protestors, Father Louis Vitale and Dennis Apel, who were arrested at Vandenberg Air Force Base for "trespassing," even though they were in the designated protest zone the whole time. The whole "designated protest zone" concept is outrageous in and of itself, but for the base security to arrest these men on a public highway was nothing more than an attempt at intimidation.

The judge granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the case, so the charges have been dropped. The defendants and others plan to be back at Vandenberg on September 21 to protest the next nuclear missile launch on the International Day of Peace.

While the anti-nuclear resisters in California were let off by the legal system this time, a group in Tennessee is facing a more uphill battle. Below is an article by John LaForge that bears repeating:

Testing 1,2,3 (4,5...)

What's up with all the nuclear missile testing lately by the US military? It's nothing new: they have been doing it for decades. But five tests in eight days? Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, and with a president who claims to (eventually) want a world free of nuclear weapons, this really is not what the world needs.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, the US Navy fired four Trident 2 D-5 nuclear-capable missiles from the USS Maryland. Then, early this morning, the US Air Force fired a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg - just up the road from me in California - to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The Navy really patted itself on the back about the "success" of the tests and the capabilities of their missiles that carry nuclear warheads around the world's oceans. In their press release, they lauded the Trident 2 D-5 missile for its "increased firepower [and] flexibility."