Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 9. Juni 2004 / Time Line June 9, 2004
Version 3.006/09/2004
Nobelfredsprismodtageren
Bertha von Suttner fødes 1843.
06/09/2004
Blair's ongoing devotion to WMD
The Trident Ploughshares campaign has given a strong welcome to the
growing appreciation that the British government is already making
firm plans for how it will replace the current Trident nuclear
weapon system.
In today's "Scotsman" journalist Tim Ripley *gives an account of
indications of new designs and plans, in particular for a new class
of nuclear weapon submarine, which might also have a conventional
weapon function.
In spite of government claims that no decisions have been made it
has been obvious to campaigners for some time that planning has
begun, given the heightened activity at Aldermaston and the
proposed laser facility there.
The political indications are also strong, given the stance at the
recent NPT Prepcom, when the UK joined other nuclear weapon states
in attempting to change the NPT agenda by downplaying the
obligations on current nuclear weapon states to disarm and focusing
solely on new states acquiring these weapons. In this context the
likelihood that designs for a new nuclear weapon submarine fleet
are in hand is hardly surprising.
A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:
"This government is committed to digging itself ever deeper in the
nuclear morass and is prepared to flout international law and its
treaty obligations to do so. We need a new public awakening to what
these weapons do to millions of people and to the planet. This is
why our direct action campaign will continue this summer, with the
disarmament camp at Aldermaston (2nd to 9th July) and the Big
Blockade at Faslane on 23rd August."
06/09/2004
Just in the past two days, we have learned the following:
a) there was a memo drafted by top Pentagon lawyers in March 2003
arguing that US military interrogators are exempted from convention
against torture, legitimizing later actions at Abu Ghraib and
elsewhere.
b) UN SC unanimously approved the transfer of power in Iraq from
the US occupation forces to CIA agent Allawi, a terrorist who
oversaw blowing up vehicles and killing innocent civilians in Iraq
on behalf of his handlers in the 1990s.
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