by
Kamillah Fairchild, Andrew Kishner (Citizens Against Divine
Strake), & Chelsea Collonge
Citizens of Nevada, Utah and Idaho hail the cancellation
of Divine Strake as a victory for the people of the
region. A growing grassroots movement made their voices
heard at rallies, public hearings sponsored by Utah
Governor Jon Huntsman, and through thousands of comments
they sent to the government in opposition to the test.
Divine Strake was cancelled as a result of the people
saying: “We were lied to before. And we don’t
believe the government now when they say that Divine
Strake is safe.”
The government failed the public not only through its
inadequate environmental assessments that claimed the
test would do no harm. The Pentagon agency that sponsored
Divine Strake, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA),
never delivered on its promise to provide hearings to
address Divine Strake’s public health concerns.
Divine Strake would have been the last of several tests
dubbed the Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and
Technology Demonstration (ACTD), funded by Congress
in 2002. Last year, the Pentagon agency that sponsored
Divine Strake, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
confirmed that Divine Strake was the experiment described
in documents as a large-scale test intended ‘to
simulate a low yield nuclear weapon ground shock environment.’
Later, the official language, used by DTRA deliberately
avoided all reference to a nuclear simulation. Instead,
DTRA described the purpose of Divine Strake test in
terms of conventional weaponss.
“Although DTRA announced that Divine Strake is
cancelled, its test program about nuclear bunker buster
research is not. Until DTRA cancels the Tunnel Target
Defeat program, which is a multi-year Pentagon effort
to research the bunker-busting abilities of nuclear
weapons, there can be no assurance that another test
like Divine Strake won’t be coming down the pike.”
stated Andrew Kishner, of Citizens Against Divine Strake
and StopDivineStrake.com.
DTRA reportedly had no explanations behind the abortive
effort and maintained that the cancellation had nothing
to do with the safety concerns about the test.
Yesterday, Representative Jim Matheson (UT) stressed
the need for continued vigilance about Divine Strake
by announcing his intent to hold federal hearings. Frustrated
with the government’s continued failure to heed
the lessons about nuclear testing and health consequences,
Matheson wants to find out the identities of the person
or persons who pushed for the test, what was the test’s
intended purpose and what were the reasons for its cancellation.
Matheson stated… “I am...on the Energy sub-committee
of the House Energy and Commerce committee which has
jurisdiction over the Department of Energy nuclear weapons
program and within that sub-committee, I want to hold
hearings.”
We stand behind Congressman Matheson and ask our elected
representatives to support this investigation. We feel
that hearings would send a clear message that any future
military experiments will have to include the participation
of the public, the requisite assessments or impact studies,
and the full consideration of the very real sacrifices
that downwinders made to this country. The Defense Threat
Reduction Agency owes it to them to concede that one
fact: that the test was indeed unsafe.
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