I have saved my main message against Divine Strake for those who have come here without knowledge about it. This was written before its termination, but will inform you about it.

Yes, the test is now terminated, but the program that mothered Divine Strake, ACTD, is not and still is pursuing to develop new mini-nukes for underground targets. If such a weapon was dropped on a Baghdad underground bunker, safe estimates would put the civilian casualty to 10,000 people. ACTD also goes against Congressional refusal of permission to develop new nuclear weapons and threatens to violate the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty as well.

OLD MESSAGE AGAINST DIVINE STRAKE BEFORE THE TEST TERMINATION

IT IS WITH SOLEMN AND SERIOUS PURPOSE THAT I WRITE THESE WORDS:

There is a message in the media that needs more and more prominence. It is an issue that poses a risk not only to the entire state of Nevada and Utah, but also will be the precedent of a darker future internationally unless it is stopped. And time is running out. Action needs to be taken NOW.

I DON'T HOW INFORMED ABOUT YOU ARE ABOUT DIVINE STRAKE. YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE EVEN HEARD ABOUT IT. This is a precursor test by the Pentagon to renew the nuclear weapon program with the intention of using nuclear weapons as first strike weapons,not last resort weapons. This 700-ton chemical explosion is at the Nevada Testing Site where more than 900 nuclear weapon tests have beendone. The radioactive debris from this 10,000 foot explosion will fall upon Nevada and the entire state of Utah, not just southern Utah as it is commonly misunderstood.
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A PUBLIC HEARING WAS HELD ON JAN. 24 IN SALT LAKE CITY. I ATTENDED IT. The overwhelming opposition will be given in transcript for "consideration". All indications I have observed and noted do not put me in high hopes.

The Pentagon broke their promise to announce a public hearing by mid-December and their lawyer also said that the government will not keep their promise of a 60 day notice after February 1st when Divine Strake will be executed. Divine Strake was delayed last year after criticisms of the environmental assessment that denied the soil was radioactive and denied that the debris would fall farther than a mile or two. The Pentagon said they would consider other locations, but ended up defaulting on the Nevada Testing Site instead of say, Dugway, because it would cheaper to do it at NTS and it would take less time toexecute the program. The message is clear: the Pentagon is trying to RUSH Divine Strake to execution.

The second environmental assessment says that the soil is indeed radioactive and that the debris will fall upon Utah. And yet it says won't be in "significant" doses. This is false science they are pushing. Even one of these radioactive particles that do exist in the soil will cause cancer. The second environmental assessment did not take into account particles smaller than 10 microns. Many dangerous particles are smaller than ten microns, some are as small as 2.5 microns. Even diesel exhaust is 5 microns.
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Divine Strake must be STOPPED. Like Pete Ashdown who attended the meeting, I will do everything I can to stop this, even if it means going there, refusing to let the trucks go with the materials for the explosion and being arrested.

Utah will NOT suffer poisoned milk, water, food, and air from nuclear testing AGAIN. Food was poisoned in both Northern and Southern Utah. Southern Utah will not suffer a generation that often have never known their grandparents because of cancer caused by nuclear weapon testing. We will not be the expendable commodities of the government again! We will not have to worry about cancer, especially leukemia in our children, lymph node cancer, and bone cancer that all have been strongly connected to nuclear weapon radiation.
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I am proposing an emergency agenda and for us to begin to take action.

First and foremost, citizens have a right to demand an environmental inspection study, EIS, instead of a environmental assessment as the Pentagon has been doing. We all need to write letters. And we all need to get as many other people to write letters. We need as many lettersas we can bleed from people as soon as possible.

CONTACT your congress representatives and senators. THIS ISN'T AN ISSUE EXCLUSIVE TO UTAH AND NEVADA. This is a change in our nuclear weapon policy for the entire nation and may have international consequences. Most representatives have profiles and e-mails online. Google: [your state] + find + legislature (or senator or representative). It will pull it up every time.

This will delay Divine Strake if not kill it.

WE MUST HAMMER hammer the media with letters and phone calls too. Independent, corporate, all media needs to be alerted to these facts.

TALK to your neighbors and friends about Divine Strake. BLOG about it. POST about it. TALK to activist organizations about this.

VISIT Stop Divine Strake! for more information.After all such media action and letter action, I for one am committing myself to go to the Nevada Testing Site to protest, as some people are ready to do already. But there is a lot we MUST do NOW do to stop it before it has to go that far and a better chance NOW than later.

I am all for ideas. And I am all for organizing ASAP.

I hope that I have communicated myself both passionately and clearly enough about the scope and importance of this issue so that you understand why I have written this letter.

In Solidarity,

Stewart N. Thorpe