[du-list] Seattle demonstration against U.S. Navy DU munitions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Peace Activists to meet the U.S. Navy Fleet arrival
at SEAFAIR
on
August 5 in Elliott Bay
Contact: Glen Milner (206) 365-7865
Mary Gleysteen (360) 297-3894
Peace activists call for a Nuclear-free Port of Seattle. No nuclear
warships. No nuclear or depleted uranium munitions.
Local activists will stage a water-based nonviolent protest against the
glorification of weapons of war at the Seattle SEAFAIR festival and the deployment
of radioactive depleted uranium munitions on U.S. Navy vessels.
Ø Peace activists will meet the U.S. Navy fleet in Puget Sound and
enter
Ø Elliott Bay with the fleet.
When: Thursday, August 5, 2004. SEAFAIR fleet arrives around noon
Where: Elliott Bay in downtown Seattle.
The fleet arrival at SEAFAIR is a public relations and recruiting event
for the U.S. Navy. Previous years have brought Trident nuclear submarines and
Navy warships used to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first War on Iraq
and the War on Afghanistan.
The fleet is on display in downtown Seattle at tremendous cost to taxpayers at
a time when crucial socialservices in education, health care and transportation
are being cut for lack of funds. The fleet will stay in Seattle for four days.
The Close-In Weapons System, a gun system on almost every Navy surface vessel,
and on all five Navy vessels arriving at SEAFAIR this year, is capable of firing
radioactive depleted uranium rounds.
This will be the third year peace vessels have nonviolently engaged the U.S. Navy
fleet arrival at SEAFAIR.
In 2000, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped a protest boat with banner proclaiming "Choose
Life", and ordered it out of Elliott Bay. In 2003, four peace boats traveled
with the U.S. Navy fleet in Elliott Bay. Both times U.S. Navy and Coast Guard
personnel brandished large automatic weapons on vessels off downtown Seattle.
Peace vessels and all other vessels are required to stay 500 yards from Navy
surface ships. On July 22, 2004, Commander Sellers of Navy Region Northwest warned
that if peace vessels came within 100 yards of Navy vessels, crew members could
be shot and/or arrested.
The next scheduled Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action event will be on
August 8, 2004 at the Trident submarine base at Bangor, Washington.
Please see attached fact sheet
Fact Sheet--Local Peace Activists to meet the U.S. Navy Fleet arrival at SEAFAIR
on August 5 in Elliott Bay
Almost every surface vessel in the U.S. Navy has the CIWS or Close-In Weapons
System, which is capable of firing up to 4,500 20mm rounds per minute as a final
ship defense against missiles and fighter planes.
This is the gun system, according to Navy documents released in December 2002, used
to fire radioactive depleted uranium rounds into prime fishing waters off the
Washington State coast.
The gun must be fired twice each month for testing and calibration purposes.
Each test fires approximately 400 to 600 rounds.
The U.S. Navy 25mm Mk 38 machine gun has also been fired with depleted uranium
rounds. The Mk 38 is capable of firing 175 rounds per minute with a range of
approximately 2,700 yards.
Navy vessel types arriving at SEAFAIR this year, and the gun system capable of
firing depleted uranium rounds, are the following:
(1) Amphibious Assault Ship (LHD) two 20mm CIWS, four 25mm Mk 38 machine guns
(1) Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD)?two 20mm CIWS, two 25mm Mk 38 machine guns
(1) Dock Landing Ship (LSD)?two 20mm CIWS, two 25mm Mk 38 machine guns
(2) Guided Missile Cruiser (CG)?two 20mm CIWS, two 25mm Mk 38 machine
Depleted uranium, U-238, is a waste product of the process to enrich uranium
for use in nuclear power plants and weapons production. Depleted uranium is 1.7
times as dense as lead and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
In a 1995 study, the Army Environmental Policy Institute concluded, "If depleted
uranium enters the body, it has a potential to generate significant medical consequences.
The risks associated with depleted uranium are both chemical and radiological."
In 2000, the U.S. Department of Energy admitted that depleted uranium used in
Kosovo was contaminated with "transuranic" (heavier than uranium) fission wastes
from inside nuclear reactors. Munitions used were spiked with plutonium, neptunium
and americium.
Documents released through the Freedom of Information Act show gross negligence
by the U.S. Navy in handling depleted uranium rounds. In August 2001, the Navy
mistakenly shipped 20mm depleted uranium rounds instead of tungsten rounds to
the U.S. Coast Guard in Seattle.
The Coast Guard received and stored 1,700 radioactive rounds at Pier 36 in downtown
Seattle and loaded it on the cutter Mellon. When Coast Guard personnel realized
they had depleted uranium on their vessel, they turned it over to the Navy?s
weapons storage depot at Indian Island, near Port Hadlock.
The Coast Guard is not licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
handle
depleted uranium munitions. The Navy is not licensed by the Military Surface
Deployment and Distribution Command to ship depleted uranium munitions.
This year members of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action will be mindful
of friend and colleague, Jackie Hudson, who on July 25, 2003 was sentenced to
2 1/2 years in prison in Colorado for a demonstration at a nuclear missile silo.
Jackie?s actions serve as our inspiration.
