President John F. Kennedy "Test Ban Treaty" speech - 1963
Channel 53 - National Geographic Channel aired a video on your left on January 18, 2011 centered on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Afghanistan and another was filmed on an almost identical trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and was filmed in 2005. Both talk intimately about the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) and both have unplanned stops in Israel. Both administrations reiterate the position that they do not favour further development in the Gaza. (both films were gobbled up by the Internet monster)
A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE - Homeland Security Studies
JEFFREY PETER KRAUS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC SECURITY
B.S., the College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, 1992
Exclusive: US security flaws exposed in Libya - aljazeera.com
Documents show State Department knew of security problems in Benghazi but failed to fix them.
Trevor Aaronson Last Modified: 04 Sep 2013 16:40
But today the Bureau of Diplomatic Security is having difficulty handling its training load.
The reason: the State Department, unlike other agencies, does not have a designated training facility for security agents. The department is now trying to identify a site near Washington, D.C., on which to build a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center.
Until a center is built, the State Department must continue "begging hat-in-hand for use of others' facilities," the report stated.
"The establishment of such an integrated, state-of-the-art facility is a best practice adopted long ago by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Secret Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration," the panel wrote.
Bill O'Reilly - A friend of DSS. The demands of protection and bureaucratic strangulation by the Black Dragons , who have not embraced the concept of the ARSO-I program, has resulted in the OCI program
being deployed very slowly. This means that of the 200 positions envisioned and internally programmed by Bureau of Consular Affairs and DSS in 2004, only 50 ARSO-I agents have been assigned to posts abroad as of this writing, and a total of 123 ARSO-I agents are supposed to be deployed by the end of 2011. The other 77 ARSO-I positions were taken away from the OCI program by the department and used to provide more secretarial positions.
Not meaning to confuse anyone but when one mentions "Black Dragons" around the State Department one would think of names such as Negroponte, Quainton, etc. Now trying to add to that group one would never think of the name Boswell, but one blogger suggests that the "Black Dragons" put Eric J. Boswell in charge:
This is one instance where contacting your local congresscritter and the unesteemed members of the press might help. Ask them why DS employees are afraid to talk about Bengazi? You might also ask why the Black Dragons think Eric Boswell was the only guy qualified to run DS (they put him in charge twice.Why????) Include the links to this post of PVB’s and his other Benghazi posts. Also include PVB’S and Whirled View’s Maura Harty posts.
Naturally, I’d do all this on the sly. Don’t even think about bringing any of this to State’s corrupt OIG if you work there and value you job.
03/19/13 9:51 AM
Obviously this guy knows nothing about Ambassador Eric J. Boswell, an unfortunate victim of horrible circumstances.
If we are literal in our understanding of why we follow the premise that the support of Israel is in line with our basic belief in a God that is moral and just then we are right to continue to support that State in all that we do. But if we begin to doubt that some of the large interest groups that also support the United States of America begin to take advantage of our constitution and laws, formed by the founding fathers over 200 years ago, then we need to begin to take serious steps to see that those groups cannot continue to play off the emotions of good people who conscientiously have no other alternative than to believe that those who enforce the laws of this country are doing the right thing in their defense of the State of Israel.
An example of the preferential treatment was the Securities and Exchange Commissions approval on the Friday before Christmas 2006 when the AFL/CIO revealed the following:
On the Friday before Christmas, the SEC announced a last-minute change to the new executive disclosure rules approved the month before. According to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), this amounted to a Christmas present for corporate executives from the SEC.[1] The last-minute change modified the way stock options and other equity awards were presented on the Summary Compensation Table, making it more difficult to discern the total compensation awarded to an executive in the most recent fiscal year. Talbot's CEO Arnold Zetcher total compensation in 2006 was estimated at $4,993,367.
Not only have I begun to believe that there are ethnic and religious groups within this country that are allowed preferential treatment by our judicial system, but from what I am reading online and in our newspapers, and see happening on TV and in the news-media, and more important in my own work space, I would hope and pray that others are also seeing the same thing. Two websites I see that are expressing opinions on both sides of the issue I am referring to are:
President Harry S. Truman made good on his campaign promises in several significant ways: by supporting the creation of modern Israel over the vehement objection of Secretary of State George Marshall; by supporting financial aid to Israel that (by Lilienthal's calculation) was nearly seven times greater per capita in 1952 than the amount given to Europe under the Marshall Plan; and by authorizing, over State Department objections, U.S. fund-raising and lobbying visits by self-confessed Zionist terrorists, including at least one future Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin.
Though newspapers accused most State Department officials of acting against partition of Palestine (see 1964 Palestinian National Charter [sometimes called the PLO Covenant] , at least some State department officials were directly involved in lobbying for it. Dean Rusk, head of the State Department's UN desk in Washington, later wrote, "when President Truman decided to support partition, I worked hard to implement it....The pressure and arm-twisting applied by American and Jewish representatives in capital after capital to get that affirmative vote are hard to describe."
Most any Foreign Service Officer who has been around for the last 60 years or more should remember the Otto Otepka case. Otto Otepka entered the State Department as a security evaluator in 1953. He rose through the ranks and in 1957 became Deputy Director of the Office of Security. Known for his fairness as well as toughness, he worked to rid the State Department of security risks and barred the door to new ones. For his work, he received the Department's Meritorious Service Award.
In my opinion, Otepka was a scapegoat used during the WIRETAP days of the U.S. Government. Although wiretaps have been in the news a lot during the Bush/Cheney presidency they are nowhere as prevalent as they were during the years following WWII. Not to mention the days of Prohibition. It is my opinion that following the death Marylin Monroe and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that the State Department, for their part in allowing Lee Harvey Oswald to leave and reenter the country needed to find someone to blame for much of the so called incompetency of the State Department to realize that Oswald was indeed a threat to National Security.
Ironically one event the coincided with the demise of Otepka was the formation of the State of Israel. Now, aligning support for Israel was evident not only in who was hired and who was fired but more openly by the appointment of G. Marvin Gentile as a replacement for Otepka after several interim Security heads. I wonder how many Foreign Service Officers named one of their first born David during the early 1950's and 1960's. I know one who did, my brother George Payne. If questioned on his religion, as were most of the candidates for security clearances, if found out that he might have lacked in his support and belief in the State of Israel I am sure he would have come under immediate suspicions. I am not saying in any way that this was wrong, because I myself was in a small way part of that change or building process. I have and always will be a Christian and the formation of Israel was one of the greatest accomplishments during the 20th century and should be supported by all who are compeled to believe in their existance as imperial to the basic beliefs of their suffering and litteral interpretions of the Bible as being "Gods Chosen People". But I believe, only to a point where honesty and forthrightness can be accomplished. But, as a freethinker I also think that my idea of what a Free State of Israel is has EVOLVED to the point that support does come with concessions. There probably has not been many Christians who at one time or another didn't feel like jumping up and joining the Israeli Army to help fight which ever country of faction that OPPOSED their ideas. I know that during my teens and early twenties more than once I thought about joining the Israeli Army. There has been far too many behind the scene deals and clandestine operations against other countries to say that Israel, as it exists today in respect to it's neighbors, is truly a representative of a totally Jewish or Christian idologies. Why would a Christian president such as President Jimmy Carter intercede on Hamas's behalf calling for a cease fire between that group and the Israelites?
Just to let some of you know what concerns me is some gross errors the present Republican administration seems to have made. TO me it seems not only strange that President Bush and Vice President Chaney, who doesn't seem to know their right from their left most of the time, have not admitted to most of the serious mistakes they have made and that our Democratic Senate has allowed this to continue while innocent people die and are humiliated beyound belief. I sincerely apologize if I have offended anyone important but I feel it is my obligation and my rite to speak out in every sense of the word. Please listen to the speech made by President Eisenhower in 1954, the General who blamed President Truman for using the Atomic Bomb so soon near what he said was an "Eminent surrender of Japan" and just look at the record of the Republican President's since on the Wars or Conflicts that we have had and tell me that you can't see and hear for yourself the "Bending of the Truth" to accomplish their political agenda. Read a WWII Veterans opinion of President Harry S. Truman.
I truly fell sorry for General Colin Powell, who found out that he had been "used" by the present administration to further their agenda was was forced to defend himself in a magazine called CQ (hello hello can you hear me?) with his rendition of the Marshall Plan, implemented by Gen. George C. Marshall, President Truman's Secretary of State, with what he wanted to accomplish as Secretary of State. One well known example of the Marshall Plan at work is that of the Toyota company. In June 1950, the company produced 300 trucks, and was on the verge of going out of business. The first months of the war saw the military order over 5,000 vehicles, and the company was revived. During the four years of the Korean War, the Japanese economy saw a substantially larger infusion of cash than had any of the Marshall Plan nations.
But Gen. Colin Powell was rather rudely interrupted by none other than Condolezza Rice, a lady of color and a so called expert on Russian political attitudes and policies. Secretary Rice, unless some tragic event such as the destruction of the American Embassy in Baghdad occurs with untold loss of American life, will always be remembered as a Secretary with little understanding of Diplomacy either abroad or within the rank and file of State Department's structured bureaucracy. If an event such as the Embassy bombing in Beirut or Kenya should occur in Baghdad she should know that that BLOOD will be on her and the Bush Administration's hands. Update January 2010 - Well, it seems I may have to eat my words, and not without great joy that as of this date the GREEN ZONE and the ongoing efforts to establish a democracy in the war torn country of Iraq seems to be working. I am happy to admit that as far as I can see, looking back on the Bush presidency it is leaning towards some reconciliation in my eyes. I did receive a request from the RNC to send a donation to the George Bush Memorial Library and had I not be torn between that and aide to Haiti I would have sent George $25 dollars, but with a more pressing disaster in the making, OH, sorry I forgot I did say Bush's presidency was looking less and less like a train wreck, well the point is I sent my money to Haiti instead of the Bushes.
My brother was always asking me to play sports, ski, squash and go to the firing range with him. On our trip to Canada in 1982 we walked to the community center in the subdivision where he lived, it was -20 degrees. I had never played squash but I beat him on the first game. Truly beginners luck. He wanted me to go to the firing range with him in 1983 while I was employed with the State Department, I knew he wanted to "show me up". I refused to go. He had told me years before that if he could challenge any CIA officer to the firing range he had been successful in most instances. I knew better than to compete with him at his own game.
October 23, 2007 - Regional Security Officer's in Iraq provided with additional Special Agents (Internet monster again!!)
December 2012 - Never mind that additional DSS Agents were sent in 2007 it seems that 5 years later 2012 that there were too many, reports of 200 RSO's by a Diplopundit subscriber, in Iraq. Not a new form of diplomacy but a rather unbalanced one seems to be taking shape, Transformational Diplomacy. In such a Spring as the Arab Spring of 2012 who can know just where resources are most needed. Well, it evidently culminated in a shakeup at DSS, and one that I must say will tarnish the history of that proud organization. The attitude of the 1980's and 1990's of Let George Do It somehow faded in the next decade. To find anything humorous with the entire situation would be unthinkable but to look toward the future to the Department's incoming Secretary, Senator John Kerry, one would hope that getting things Ship Shape, as my wife would say would be the first order of business.
Captain Albert Burice Norrod died in a training flight of a AT-6B - S/N 41-17402, June 27, 1942 near Brooksville, Mississippi. A very special lady to all my family was Great Aunt Victoria "Tora" Norrod. She lived in Washington, D.C. till her death in 1973.
"Disdain for Security. The result is a low regard, even disdain, by the State Department for security officers.This is reflected in the pecking order at the typical U.S. embassy.The Regional Security Officer, the local representative of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, reports to the embassy's administrative officer, the foreign service official with typically the lowest prestige in the embassy. What is more, the security officer is considered part of the support staff 7 State Department officials also tend to see embassies as extensions of the US slices of America transplanted abroad. They consider security measures as barriers between themselves and the locals. Ironically, this was one argument used by State Department careerists against eliminating foreign nationals in the Moscow Embassy. Arthur Hartman, U.S. ambassador in Moscow during some of the most damaging security lapses, told Representative James Courter, the New Jersey Republican, that Soviet citizens working at the embassy came away with a new and fresh perspective about democracy.
Headline, U-TAPAO AIRFIELD - April 25, 1975, approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Bangkok. The original evacuation of Saigon was code-named Talon Vice. George Payne is stationed in a bunker at the U.S. Airfield. He snaps a picture of himself and several Marines and his brother Joe, who is at that moment, working with the General Services Section of the U.S. Passport Office. The original evacuation plans were completed by April 18, 1975 and the name was changed to Frequent Wind because the name had been compromised by it's publication, almost in it's entirety, in Newsweek Magazine. U-Tapao Airfield was used as a jumping-off point by the USAF with eight CH-53 and two HH-53 "Sea Stallion" helicopters. The final lift of ten (10) Marine Security Guards of the Saigon Detachment and LtCol Jim Kean USMC, Retired was completed at 0758 on the morning of 30 April 1975 having waited for the exhausted pilots of the CH 46's to refuel and turn around. Major Kean later stated that he and his Marine did not become alarmed because they knew that another CH-46 would arrive. "We never had a doubt that our fellow Marines would return and pick us up. They had been doing it all night long." USS Midway Pictures. Letters from George Payne to family herein called Letters from the Orient, Jan. - July, 1975.
Headline, NEAR TEHRAN, IRAN - April 1980 - On April 25, 1980, the rescue attempt, dubbed "Operation Eagle Claw," came to a flaming end on the floor of the desert near Tehran. Eight Americans. Among the dead were Air Force Capt. Charles T. McMillan II, from Knoxville, Tennessee.
Headline, TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE - Early 1980 - After entering the hospital in May 1980 for a hip replacement Betty Payne becomes deathly ill because of a mixup in medications taken in July 1980. Her son Joe and husband Al are forced to drive her to the hospital in Knoxville because of non-service from the local ambulance company. Her son George E. Payne has been on assignment with the US State Department in Johannesburg, South Africa and had been working with a team of State Department officials on the rescue and release of American hostages held at the Iranian Embassy in Tehran. In August or September the doctors gave Betty little time to live and was forced to remove her leg. They were told to call all the family together and Joe was able to reach his brother through the State Department command center. George was explicit in saying that he could only come home if it was apparent that his mother was dying and from what he was told Joe told him that was the case.
Headline, TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE - Christmas 1981 - Administrative Officer from US Embassy, Ottawa, Canada calls George Payne, Regional Security Officer, US Embassy Ottawa, at parents home to inform him that he needs to return to the embassy in Ottawa immediately because of a bomb threat. George Payne remains on the phone for quite some time assuring the Administrative Officer of the unlikelyness of this threat being serious but that he will get the first flight out of Knoxville. George finds that all flights out of Magee Tyson have been grounded and calls A,min Officer back to again assure him that the threat is not serious and that the Embassy Guard contingentent and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police could handle it until he could return after the snow storm subsided. In about an hour Ambassador Paul Heron Robinson, Jr. calls back and says that Mr. Payne had better get to Canada immediately. This is George Payne's last assignment as a RSO. He solicits his brother Joe, a local Tree Farmer, to drive him to Canada in his 1972 Ford Mustang. The rest is history.
Headline, KNOXVILLE and SURROUNDING AREAS - November 1, 1982 - On 1 November 1982, dozens (180) of Federal Agents simultaneously raided all of Butcher's United American Bank and branches and offices. Former FBI agent Sterling Owen, now Knoxville's police chief, was sent to Knoxville in 1981 to keep an eye out for fraud.
Headline, KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - February 14, 1983 - The United American Bank collapsed on 14 February , 1983 , it was the fourth-largest bank failure in U.S. History. Several other Butcher-controlled banks, such as the Southern Industrial Banking Corporation also became insolvent. Later that year, it was learned that Butcher was also insolvent, his assets were listed at $11.9 million and his liabilities at $32.5 million. On November 10, 1984 the with S.E.C. charge Butcher with violating the antifraud provisions of Federal securities laws. In July 1985 Joe Payne is hired as General Services Clerk at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Knoxville and works for exactly two years, until July 1987. During that time he traveled to Halls and Maynardville and collected records from the closed Southern Industrial Bank buildings in search of records for a family named Church from Kentucky. He is told that whoever locates the records first would get a promotion. Unfortunately another employee located the records before him. November 27, 1983 Ariel Sharon termed by many Palestinians, "The Butcher of Beirut" who will never forgive Sharon for his treatment of Palestinians during 1982.
Headline, NEWINGTON, VIRGINIA - March - November 1983 - Joe Payne works a temporary assignment in the Diplomatic Mail and Pouch Center, U.S. Department of State towards a Security Clearance to become a Diplomatic Courier. During the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beruit he attends a large mass at the National Cathedral for the victims of the embassy bombing. He writes several letters regarding what he feels might happen to the American contingency of Marines stationed in Lebanon and is sent this letter from Senator Howard Baker, Jr.
Headline, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - Summer 1984 - George E. Payne has accepted a postion with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as coordinator for security in the Western Sector. Joe Payne is called to come to California to work with his brother during the event. Joe takes a job as Assistant Transportation Manager at Santa Anita Race Track for the Santa Anita Turf Club. Joe remains in Los Angeles until late September with his brother on Malibu Beach, where George has his Airstream trailer parked at Malibu RV Park.
Headline, 1986/1987 FREEMANTLE, AUSTRALIA - 1986/1987 - Former State Department Personnel Marvin Doig and George Payne contacted by former employer to travel to Moscow to oversee security at the US Embassy there following discovery of espionage amoung Marine Embassy Guard contingent, particularly Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, a Winnebago Indian, on December 14, 1986 confessed to a CIA station chief of his wrong doings. Marvin Doig accepts the assingment and leaves Perth in route to Moscow. George Payne and wife Patty remain in Perth for the remainder of the event. Lonetree sereves only 9 years of a 30 year sentence.
Headline, BEIJING, CHINA - TAZEWELL, TN - December 14, 1986 - The family back in Tazewell enjoy the America's Cup event on television that summer but suffer a tragic loss later that year by the death of Al Payne, the patriarch of the family. George Payne is called home from Beijing, China where he has been dispatched to bolster security at the US Embassy following student demonstrations. He is reached on December 14, 1986 through the State Department command center by his brother Joe. George had uncanny alacrity that morning and had come to the US Embassy early. December 14 is George's son David's birthday.
Tiananmen Square, 1989
The Declassified History
Ain't Democracy Grand (Quote from "Strike Back - Project Dawn")
A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book
The student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989 were not the first time in the 1980s that Chinese authorities were faced with organized demonstrations expressing dissatisfaction with their rule. In late 1985, and again in late 1986, Beijing and Shanghai were the site of student protests. Students carried banners with slogans such as "Law, Not Authoritarianism" and "Long Live Democracy."
The following December a new round of demonstrations, this time explicitly calling for political reforms, sprang up in China’s cities. Document 4, a U.S. embassy cable from December 24, 1986, reports on a small student demonstration in Beijing on the evening of December 23, 1986. The cable cites an editorial in the People's Daily, the state news daily, expressing sympathy with the students but making it clear that "the limits of official toleration were being approached." Later in the cable, embassy officials note that "political stability has always been a critical consideration in China. There can be no doubt that the authorities will crack down, and crack down hard, if stability seems to be being called into question."
Document 5, an intelligence summary from U.S. Pacific Command, reports that thousands of protesters filled Tiananmen Square on New Year’s Day 1987, and that, "Some 24 ‘troublemakers’ reportedly were taken away by the police for ‘education and examination.’" On January 17, another intelligence summary (Document 6)reports that noted reformer and Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang had resigned, apparently "a result of the recent student demonstrations."
Headline, KNOXVILLE,TENNESSEE - December 1987-January 1, 1988 - Losing his contract with the F.D.I.C. Joe takes a part-time job through Staffing Solutions with the TVA, Office of General Counsel, Norman Zigrossi, writting deposition summaries for the team of lawyers working on the lawsuit with United Nuclear Corporation working to release TVA from it's obligation to purchase mined and mill uranium at UNC's Church Rock mine in New Mexico. He is praised for his work and introduction of humor and a sense of compassion of the Navajo Indian, but not given full-time employment. NUCLEAR SCANDAL SHAKES THE TVA
"UNC was one of the American producers cited by Westinghouse in its cartel proceedings (22) during the late '70s, and by TVA in one of the "spin offs" from that huge legal bonanza. In its turn, UNC litigated against Gulf Oil for failure to meet contracts:
The dispute with TVA was settled in 1979 when UNC sold its interest in a number of its Wyoming uranium properties to TVA, namely Morton Ranch and Box Creek, containing just under 7 million pounds of uranium reserves, and agreed to purchase TVA's 50% interest in a JV near UNC's San Mateo mine, increasing the amount of its deliveries to TVA from 5 million to 6.25 million pounds between 1970 and 1984."
Norman Zigrossi, TVA General Counsel 1987, was the head of the FBI office in Rapid City, S.D. on June 26, 1975, the FBI stormed onto the Jumping Bull compound on the Pine Ridge Reservation (from pro-American Indian Movement Website)"under the pretext of merely serving a warrant on Jimmy Eagle, a Native teenager accused of stealing a used pair of boots". Supposedly, Zigrossi defended the bureau's use of illegal action against the Lakota people by stating that Native people were a "conquered nation", and that the FBI was merely acting as a "colonial police force". Zigrossi went on to say, "when you're conquered, the people you're conquered by dictate your future. This is a basic philosophy of mine. If I'm part of a conquered nation, then I've got to yield to authority".
The FBI lost two agents that day. FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, assigned to the Rapid City Resident Agency (RCRA) within the FBI's Minneapolis Division, entered the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation, Jumping Bull Compound on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Their vehicles received a total of 125 bullet holes, not counting those that either missed or went through the shattered windows and were not recovered. No Parole Peltier Association.
I have in my possesion most every article written by Don Whitehead clipped by my grandfather Joseph Phillips from the Washington, D.C., Evening Star in 1957 that spawned "The F.B.I. Story", later made into a movie staring Jimmy Stuart. I will try and find time to scan those articles in their original condition. Someday when I finish the book on the life of Agent Joseph Phillips I will include some of the stories I had heard regarding their times and include a picutre of a very early device used for wiretaps that I have in my possession. The F.B.I. investigated Whitehead who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for National Reporting, because of his being assigned to write a history of the F.B.I. The University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville has a Finding Aid for Don Whitehead Journalistic Collection, 1940-1973, if interested.
Headline, ABU DHABI, UAE - August 1990 - September 1990 - George Payne is called to the U.S. Embassy in Dubai and travels throughout the Middle East, calls his mother from Amman, Jordan soon after a Scud Missile strike near him. August 1990 - USIA noted aggressive Iraqi language towards Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and the alarming build-up of Iraqi forces on the Kuwait border. September 4, 1990 - The Iraqi government today denied permission for Western airliners to evacuate foreign women and children as U.S. and allied diplomats sought other ways to transport home the several thousand stuck in Kuwait since Iraq's invasion a month ago. Negotiations were made particularly difficult because of the allies' aim of finding a way for women and children to leave their hiding places in Kuwait without alerting Iraqi occupation forces to the whereabouts of men in the families. Under rules laid down by President Saddam Hussein, foreign women and children may depart but men from… - USIA director Bruce Gelb also commissioned an investigation from the USIA’s Office of the Inspector General. On January 16, 1991 the Pakistani newspaper Markaz claimed that Pakistani troops had opened fire on Americans and killed 72. At USIA the senior policy officer for countering disinformation and misinformation, served as the US government’s chief analyst of and spokesman on Iraqi propaganda, monitoring the spread of rumors and moving swiftly to refute them. On January 31, 1991 despite the counterattack, USIA reported a widespread perception of a propaganda victory for Saddam Hussein.
President George W. Bush talks to the staff of the USIA involved in the misinformation campaign. "The expertise of your people in the field, the fine Gulf War pamphlets that you produced, all the extra hours behind the microphone at VOA and in USIA’s TV studios helped us to get the word out, helped people in the Middle East and around the world separate fact from fiction about Iraq’s aggression and the intentions of Saddam Hussein. We were up against an enormous propaganda machine from various quarters overseas. And I think that you all distinguished yourselves with great honor and great credit to the United States of America. So, thank you from this grateful heart."
Headline, ALMATY, KAZAKSTAN - December 31, 1991-January 1, 1992 - George Payne and American embassy contractor from Montgomery, Alabama share a tape recorded by his brother Joe of the Citrus Bowl football game sent through Diplomatic Mail. The United States has assisted Kazakhstan in the removal of nuclear warheads, weapons-grade materials, and their supporting infrastructure. The United States was the first country to recognize Kazakhstan, on December 25, 1991, and opened its Embassy in Almaty in January 1992; the Embassy moved to Astana in 2006. In the years since Kazakhstan's independence, the two countries have developed a wide-ranging bilateral relationship.In 1994, Kazakhstan transferred more than a half-ton of weapons-grade uranium to the United States. In 1995 Kazakhstan removed its last nuclear warheads and, with U.S. assistance, completed the sealing of 181 nuclear test tunnels in May 2000. OK, I had to refer back to my letters from Senator, later Ambassador James Sasser to recollect that the year was 1991 and 1992 that my brother worked in Kazakhstan. I also sent him a VHS recording of the Tennessee vs. Alabama game that year and the contractor and he watched it on New Year's eve. The Citrus Bowl was on New Years Eve, Tennessee lost to Pennsylvania State. The name of that construction company was CADDELL CONSTRUCION. . Regarding the NEW building projects that are being bid out to foreign contracts. Firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs.
OPERATIONAL STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WARHEADS
1991
1995
Russia
7,327
6,530
Ukraine
1,512
300
Kazakstan
1,360
0
Belarus
81
18
Total
10,280
6,848*
* 33% reduction
OPERATIONAL STRATEGIC NUCLEAR DELIVERY VEHICLES
1991
1995
Russia
2,074
1,345
Ukraine
210
50
Kazakstan
144
0
Belarus
81
18
Total
2,509
1,413*
* 44% reduction
Fina
lly getting back to what might have been accomplished back during Oppenheimer and Rickover's day. All this of course will be attributed to something that President Eisenhower said. Should not be:
USEC MEGATONS TO MEGAWATTS Jessie Stewart in his book "From Swords to Plow Sheers, poet lauret of Kentucky borrowed a quote from Isaiah "Swords into Plow Sheers" which has been used again by this program.
SEWELL: Good afternoon. I want to first thank you for the opportunity to speak at this forum. It’s an honor to participate at the anniversary of, the 50th anniversary that addresses issues associated with President Eisenhower’s monumental “Atoms for Peace” proposal delivered to the United Nations in 1953.
The Eisenhower proposal sought to address the proliferation of nuclear weapons by sharing information and nuclear materials with other nations to promote the peaceful use of atomic energy. Over the past 50 years the pursuit and accomplishments of the peaceful atom have achieved tremendous success in many fields. And, as mentioned this morning, that’s shown by the fact that about 16% of the world’s electricity comes from nuclear reactors today.
But these peaceful achievements are still obscured by the shadow of nuclear weapons proliferation. Almost every day we see news reports about nuclear weapons proliferation by nations and stories about the possibility of bomb-grade material falling into the wrong hands. So the subject of this meeting today is indeed timely as is the panel discussion on controlling nuclear material. As you can see from the program, the title of my presentation pretty well captures the importance of what we are doing to secure nuclear bomb-grade material.
I am in no way against Nuclear Energy but knowing the arrogance and methodology of many of the agencies that are assigned the task of running our Nuclear Plants, I worry.
Headline, OAKRIDGE, TN. June 27, 2007 - Boeing leaving Oak Ridge but specialized workers may remain - For some reason uranium enrichment is condusive to East Tennessee even after all the health issues there have been. USEC Inc. announced Wednesday it has selected BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) to perform manufacturing work in Oak Ridge for USEC's American Centrifuge uranium enrichment program. - More dangerous uranium across Tennessee highways and problems of disposal will abound.
Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Refurbished and Running
Morning Edition, May 23, 2007 · An Alabama nuclear plant shut down for 22 years has been restarted — an example of how U.S. utilities are showing interest in nuclear power as they search for "clean" energy sources. Revamping the plant cost $1.8 billion.
by David Kestenbaum
Ashok S. Bhatnagar, Tennessee Valley Authority, Senior Vice President, Nuclear Operations -
Operators manually shut down the Unit 1 reactor at TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant Wednesday evening after a valve regulating water flow into a steam generator unexpectedly closed.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission color-coded performance grading system assigned a “yellow” to Browns Ferry Unit 1 reactor late Monday as the result of five unplanned “scrams” or shutdowns in the first seven months after restart, according to spokesman Craig Beasley.
Waiting For Disaster
During the 1970's and 1980's, the Three Mile Island (TMI) and the Chernobyl accidents failed to act as wake up calls to the hazards posed by the nuclear industry. Today, the American public is largely passive with regards to the industry's looming dangers. Currently, 76 high priority safety improvements that remain unimplemented exist at a minimum of 62 different nuclear power plants -- including one safety issue that brought a reactor within hours of a meltdown. The regulating body of the industry in the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has acquiesced to industry demands since its inception in 1975. Through the years, the nuclear industry effectively has controlled the NRC: regulations have been watered down or eliminated and licensees (or plant operators) have been given the power to regulate themselves. The relationship between the NRC and the industry has caused high priority safety issues to remain unresolved for more than ten years before changes are made or, more commonly, before issues are dismissed with no required changes. The impact of this cozy relationship has devastating potential. As incidents veer closer to meltdowns, the frequency of safety problems is likely to rise as power plants renew, up to an additional twenty years, their current forty-year licenses.
The NRC's reliance on the nuclear industry has developed over the years into a blind trust of the nuclear industry that is neither justified nor warranted. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is a perfect example of why nuclear power plant operators cannot be trusted. In 1988, Ann Harris, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employee, reported 24 allegations to the NRC -- of which 23 were confirmed by the NRC. These allegations included falsification of documentation, tampering with documentation and covering-up improprieties. The NRC responded to one of the allegations with the following, "The completeness, accuracy, and adequacy of QA documentation is a long standing, documented problem at Watts Bar."5 If the NRC knew this to be a " . . . long standing, documented problem", then why didn't they impose severe fines against those who were involved and send out a message that the NRC will not tolerate improper behavior of any kind? Instead, the NRC has defaulted on its responsibility by giving the nuclear industry more power to regulate itself and, in some areas, is " . . . reducing the regulatory burden on licensees."6
CASE 1. TVA: Disastrous Management Of Its Reactors
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was developed by the federal government in 1933 as a way to build up the economy of the Tennessee River Valley and to provide those in the surrounding area with a source of cheap electric power. Since then, TVA has expanded and now manages four nuclear power facilities: Watts Bar (TN), Sequoyah (TN), Browns Ferry (AL) and Bellefonte (AL). All of these reactors have had many problems that have caused the plants either to shut down or not be completed: Watts Bar 1 took more than twenty years to finally receive its operating license, while construction has discontinued on Unit 2; Sequoyah's reactors were shut down for three years in the mid-1980's; Browns Ferry has three units which were all shut down in the mid-1980's -- units 2 and 3 restarted in 1991 and 1995, respectively, while Unit 1 is not expected to restart; and construction on Bellefonte's two reactors has been halted due to financial constraints.
"In September 1985, the NRC staff issued a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), discussing significant continuing weaknesses in TVA performance and stating that management of the TVA nuclear program was ineffective. . . . The number and complexity of relevant issues were not limited to the operating reactors, since questionable construction practices had also been identified at the TVA's Watts Bar (Tenn.) project."56
TVA's weaknesses and ineffectiveness have yet to be corrected. It has been more than ten years since the NRC originally notified TVA of its problems. Currently, the NRC's "Watch List" includes Browns Ferry 3 in "Category 2" and Browns Ferry 1 in "Category 3".
As oil prices rise, the U.S. isn't just looking for new energy sources. It's also turning to older and, sometimes controversial, energy options. In this series, Chicago bureau chief Diane Eastabrook examines one of these options -- nuclear power.
. Regarding the NEW building projects that are being bid out to foreign contracts. 