Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 2. september 2005 / Timeline September 2, 2005
Version 3.51. September 2005, 3. September 2005
09/02/2005
Vinder af
Nobels Fredspris Sir Joseph Rotblat død 96 år
gammel
Transalte this article into English.
I går døde Sir Joseph Rotblat i London 96 år
gammel. Han havde hele sit liv arbejdet for fred i verden og
afskaffelse af
atomvåben. I 1995 delte han Nobels
Fredspris med Pugwash
Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Rotblat var med
til at grundlægge Pugwash i 1955, sammen med bl.a. Albert Einstein og Bertrand Russell.
Prof. Rotblats budskab til kongressen i 2005 om
Ikkespredningsaftalen (NPT) har stor relevans i dag:
”Spørgsmålet om atomvåben et
spørgsmål om moral”, skrev Rotblat, ”Skal
vi basere vores fremtid på en fredskultur eller en
voldskultur? Atomvåben er absolut imod alle moralske
principer. Deres virkning kan ikke nuanceres. Anvendelse af
atomvåben vil gå ud over civile så vel som
militære, uskuldige og angribere. Det dræber folk som
lever nu og ufødte generationer. Og konsekvensen af brug af
atomvåben kan betyde enden på vores civilization. Dette
gør atomvåben uacceptable som instrument for
fredsbevaring i verden. Men det er netop det der har været
vor politik i verden under og efter den kolde krig. Atomvåben
har været et afskrækningsmeddel til undgåelse af
krig gennem trusel om gengældelse.”
”For at afskrækelsen kan være effektiv må
truslen om gengældelse være reel. Vi må
overbevise eventuelle agressore om at atomvåben vil kunne
bruges imod dem. I modsat fald ville bluffet snart blive
afsløret. George
W. Bush, Tony Blair og Vladimir Putin må overbevise os
om, at de har en sådan personlighed som gør dem i
stand til at trykke på den knap og frigive instrumenter for
fuldstændige destruktion. Jeg finder det forfærdende at
tænke på at de nødvendige kvalifikationer for
lederskab er parathed til at begå folkedrab for det er hvad
det drejer sig om i en afsluttende analyse heraf. Yderlige må
man sige at medløbenhed i dette politiske spil, ikke alene
af lederne, men også hver af os, bogstaveligt talt holder
vore fingre på aftrykkeren. Vi er alle deltagere i
hazardspillet om civilisationens overlevelse. Vor verdens fremtid
hviler på en terrorbalance. I det lange løb må
dette ødelæge den etiske baggrund for vores
civilisation.”
På vegne af Pugwash Gruppen i Danmark og Det danske
Fredsakademi,
John
Avery
Ruth
Gunnarsen
Holger Terp
09/02/2005
The Political Rehabilitation of Joseph Rotblat
By Lawrence S.
Wittner
For the History News Network and the Danish Peace Academy
By the time of his death, which occurred on August 31, 2005, Joseph
Roblat was a revered figure. A top nuclear physicist, Rotblat
received—among many other honors and awards--a British
knighthood and, together with the Pugwash Conferences on Science
and World Affairs (an organization that he had helped to found),
the Nobel Peace Prize (1995). As the president of the Pugwash
conferences recalled: “Joseph Rotblat was a towering figure
in the search for peace in the world, who dedicated his life to
trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and ultimately to rid
the world of war itself.”
But Rotblat’s steadfast support for nuclear disarmament and
peace did not always receive such plaudits, as I discovered when I
conducted two interviews with him and did extensive research in
formerly secret British government records.
Born in Warsaw in 1908, Rotblat moved to Britain in 1939, where he
became a promising young physicist. During World War II, when he
feared that Nazi Germany might develop the atomic bomb, he came to
the United States to work on the Manhattan Project, America’s
own atomic bomb program that he—like many other
scientists—hoped would deter Germany’s launching of a
nuclear war. But, in late 1944, when Rotblat learned that the
German bomb program had been a failure, he resigned from the
Manhattan project and returned to London to engage in nonmilitary
work. This decision, taken for humanitarian reasons, plunged him
into hot water with the authorities. Shortly after telling his U.S.
supervisor of his plan to leave Los Alamos, he was accused by U.S.
intelligence of being a Soviet spy. The charge, totally without
merit, was eventually dropped.
Back in Britain, Rotblat engaged in peaceful research and, in the
postwar years, helped to organize the Atomic Scientists’
Association (ASA), which drew together some of that country’s
top scientists. Much like America’s Federation of American
Scientists, the ASA promoted nuclear arms control and disarmament.
However, British government officials, then more interested in
building nuclear weapons than in eliminating them, looked askance
at its activities. In 1947-48, when the ASA organized an Atomic
Train to bring the dangers of nuclear weapons (and the supposed
benefits of peaceful nuclear power) to the attention of the British
public, Prime Minister Clement Attlee objected strongly to plans
for government cooperation with it. In March 1948, when Rotblat
invited Attlee to visit the Atomic Train during its stay in London,
the foreign secretary and the defense minister advised the prime
minister to reject the offer, which he did.
Rotblat’s relations with the British government continued on
a difficult course in the 1950s. Working closely with the
philosopher Bertrand Russell, Rotblat signed the Russell-Einstein
Manifesto of July 9, 1955, which warned nations that if they
persisted in their plans for nuclear war, civilization would be
utterly destroyed. This venture, in turn, led to the Pugwash
conferences—so named because they began in 1957 at a private
estate in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Designed to bring together
scientists on both sides of the “iron curtain” for
serious, non-polemical discussions of the nuclear menace, these
conferences were low-key operations, with little publicity outside
of scientific circles. Nevertheless, British officials were deeply
suspicious of the Pugwash conferences and of Rotblat, who did most
of the organizational work for them and, in 1959, became Pugwash
secretary-general.
Convinced that “the Communists” wanted to use the 1958
Pugwash conference “to secure support for the Soviet demand
for the banning of nuclear weapons,” the British Foreign
Office initially sought to promote an attitude of skepticism toward
it. But, when Rotblat asked J.D. Cockcroft, a member of
Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority, to suggest who might be
invited to it, Cockcroft and the Foreign Office decided that a
better strategy would be to go with the flow and arrange for the
participation of a staunch proponent of the British
government’s position in the meeting, which they did.
Although one British diplomat noted that the conference
“passed off quietly enough, and not too unsuccessfully from
our point of view,” the British government remained on guard.
Learning of plans for another Pugwash conference, in Vienna, the
Foreign Office warned of the possibility “that this will be
more dangerous from our point of view than its predecessors.”
Communist participants might launch “a major propaganda drive
against nuclear weapons,” and “the organizing committee
consists of Lord Russell and Professor Rotblat.” From the
British government’s standpoint, the Pugwash conferences were
little better than “Communist front gatherings.”
But British policy gradually began to shift, as the government grew
more interested in nuclear arms controls. Asked by Rotblat if he
would like to join the advisory body of the British Pugwash
committee, Cockcroft referred the matter to the Foreign Office,
which responded that he should do so, as it would help prevent
Pugwash from “being exploited for propaganda purposes.”
Although the Foreign Office did not think he should attend the next
Pugwash conference, in Moscow, during 1960, it reversed course that
summer and urged him to recruit additional politically reliable
scientists to attend. Indeed, it now sought to take over the
Pugwash movement for its own purposes. In response to a suggestion
by Cockcroft, a Foreign Office official opined that “it would
be most helpful if the Royal Society could be persuaded to sponsor
British participation . . . and if this were to lead to the winding
up of the present Pugwash Committee.”
But the plans for a takeover failed. When the British government
suggested topics for Pugwash meetings and more government officials
who should be invited to them, Rotblat resisted, much to government
dismay. In October 1963, a Foreign Office official complained that
“the difficulty is to get Prof. Rotblat to pay any attention
to what we think... He is no doubt jealous of his independence and
scientific integrity.” Securing “a new organizer for
the British delegation seems to be the first need, but I do not
know if there is any hope of this.”
Nonetheless, despite lingering resentment at Rotblat’s
independence and integrity, the British government had arrived at a
positive appraisal of the Pugwash conferences. As a British defense
ministry official declared in January 1962: Pugwash was “now
a very respectable organization.” When the Home Office,
clinging to past policy, advised that Pugwash was “a dirty
word,” the Foreign Office retorted that the movement now
enjoyed “official blessing.” Explaining the turnabout,
a Foreign Office official stated that “the process of
educating” Soviet experts is “bound to be of some use
to us.” Furthermore, “we ourselves may pick up some
useful ideas from our own scientists ... and are not likely to be
embarrassed by anything which they suggest.” Finally,
“if there is ever to be a breakthrough, it is not
inconceivable that the way might be prepared by a conference of
this kind.”
In fact, there soon was a breakthrough: the Partial Test Ban Treaty
of 1963—a nuclear arms control measure that the Pugwash
conferences played a key part in generating. The British government
had no doubt about the connection, and in 1964 it honored Rotblat
with a CBE—Commander of the British Empire—for his
organization of the Pugwash conferences.
And so it goes. Today’s dangerously peace-minded heretic is
tomorrow’s hero. Abraham Lincoln—that staunch critic of
the Mexican War—became America’s best-loved President.
Robert LaFollette—reviled and burned in effigy for his
opposition to World War I—emerged as one of this
nation’s most respected senators. Martin Luther King,
Jr.—condemned for his protests against the Vietnam
War—is now honored as this country’s great
peacemaker.
Perhaps today, when governments promise us endless military
buildups and wars, opposition politicians should take note of this
phenomenon.
09/02/2005
General Dynamics Completes Acquisition of Itronix
Corporation
News Release - Friday, September 2, 2005
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) today
completed its acquisition of Itronix Corporation, a Spokane,
Washington-based provider of wireless, rugged mobile computing
solutions. Plans to acquire the company were announced on August 3;
terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is
accretive to General Dynamics.
Itronix, which has approximately 450 employees, provides a broad
range of advanced wireless, rugged field computing systems,
including handhelds, laptops and tablet PCs, as well as wireless
integration and support services for the military, public safety
and select commercial markets, including telecommunication;
commercial field services; utilities; transportation; and insurance
sectors. Itronix now becomes part of General Dynamics C4
Systems.
Itronix products and services complement General Dynamics’
existing command, control and communications capabilities. Along
with capabilities acquired through the Aug. 16 purchase of Tadpole
Computer, Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.), this enhanced expertise in
rugged wireless computing enables General Dynamics to expand its
offerings of trusted end-to-end, highly available network services,
especially to defense customers. These mobile networks deliver
actionable intelligence via advanced command-and-control
applications to soldiers at the outer fringes of tactical networks,
where bandwidth and other resources are limited.
Mark Fried, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems, said,
“More than ever, our core U.S. defense and homeland security
customers are relying on rugged mobile computing solutions to meet
their mission requirements. The acquisitions of Itronix and Tadpole
Computer enable General Dynamics C4 Systems to deliver expanded
capabilities that meet our customers’ requirements, from the
core to the very farthest edges of the network.”
With more than 10,000 employees worldwide, General Dynamics C4
Systems specializes in command and control, communications
networking, space systems, computing and information assurance for
defense, government and select commercial customers in the United
States and abroad.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs
approximately 70,800 people worldwide and had 2004 revenues of
$19.2 billion. The company is a market leader in mission-critical
information systems and technologies; land and expeditionary combat
systems; armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems;
and business aviation.
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