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Over a Decade of Resistance - Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
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Divine Strake
Updated 5/6/07

The Divine Strake explosion has been cancelled
but weapons development continues!

5/5/07 Divine Strake update:
Looking down DTRA's barrel

3/4/07 Administration posture prompts fear of new nuclear blasts at Nevada Test Site Utahns voice opposition to the possibility of new blasts

3/3/07 Divine Strake's legal issues keep controversy alive, U.S. judge schedules status report - "Plans for the massive non-nuclear Divine Strake blast at the Nevada Test Site are dead but legal issues surrounding the controversial bunker-buster experiment were resurrected Friday. ... Opponents fear that the government will conduct smaller blasts that, while not as large as Divine Strake, could still stir up potentially deadly radioactive dust that lies on the ground of the test site and could be blown to their homes"

3/1/07 Hold the Mushrooms - Cancellation of Divine Strake is a Great Victory, At a Tragically High Cost, by Robert C. Koehler

2/23/07 Divine Strake Bunker Buster Test Cancelled!! Statement from Pete Litster, executive director, Shundahai Network

2/22/07 Cancellation of Proposed Divine Strake Experiment - press release by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Dear Citizens Against Divine Strake - The Defense Threat Reduction Agency DTRA wants to conduct 'smaller scale' 'confirmatory experiments' possibly in the same contaminated area of the Nevada Test Site in lieu of Divine Strake. Although Divine Strake could have been moved (from Nevada to another testing area), it was instead fully cancelled with the hope that you wouldn't pay anymore attention to DTRA's testing activities ....meanwhile, in the near future, microscopic alpha- or beta- emitting radioactive particles may be ejected from the contaminated soils in Area 16 at the NTS from 'smaller scale' tests conducted by DTRA. DTRA hasn't even defined what they mean by 'confirmatory experiments at a much smaller scale.' Are those 2 ton tests? 30 ton tests? Or multiple-small scale tests conducted simultaneously? Do you think a one-thousand foot-high radioactive dust cloud is safer than a ten-thousand foot-high radioactive dust cloud? Visit the new website www.idealist.ws to read more of this analysis and warning

Divine Strake, moreover, was an integral part of STRATCOM's new Global Strike mission, which is otherwise said to provide mainly non-nuclear means of defeating time-critical targets. Divine Strake is the first nuclear effects simulation of this kind against underground targets since President George W. Bush in Summer 2004 directed STRATCOM to "extend Global Strike to counter all HDBTs [Hard and Deeply Buried Targets] to include both tactical and strategic adversarial targets." Read more about Global Strike >>>

Sign up for a new email list. - The purpose of this list is to send out action alerts and news developments to individuals and organizations active in grassroots efforts in the post-Divine Strake test era. The list is sponsored by StopDivineStrake.com, an online organization dedicated to providing clear, intelligible and insightful information and analyses about the Divine Strake test and related issues. Our philosophy: By helping people emerge from the fog of disinformation created by the mainstream media and our government, we hope citizens will evolve better understanding into determination and more focused and efficient action.

Matheson calls for Divine Strake federal hearings - if he has to - he will issue congressional subpoenas.

Read the latest news regarding Divine Strake - updated 2/22/07

Nevada Desert Experience invitation to converge on the Nevada Test Site:
Many Faiths, One Heart - Mobilization - March 27 to April 1, 2007

 

"...it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons." -- James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

On February 7, 2007, the public comment period ended for the Draft December 2006 Revised Environmental Assessment, for the Large-Scale, Open-Air Explosive Detonation Divine Strake at the Nevada Test Site.

Thousands of activists and organizations submitted comments, testified at public events and protested the planned test. We will collect some of the public statements here as a resource.

Divine Strake violates international law Comments Of Western Shoshone Nationals

Cultural Resources and Environmental Justice Issues, the impact that integrity and accuracy issues pose on health and safety, and the legality of the test itself Comments of Eileen McCabe, Policy advisor for Blue Sky Institute, member of the Stop Divine Strake Coalition, former associate director of Shundahai Network

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) must withdraw the draft revised EA and prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NNSA must consult with the Western Shoshone, which it did not do in preparation of the draft revised EA. Comments by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS), a Santa Fe, New Mexico based nongovernmental organization (pdf)

The range of discussions and preliminary conclusions in the about the potential impacts of Divine Strake, in the EA and elsewhere, are couched only in terms of whether substantial harm to humans might reach the perimeter of the Nevada Test Site boundary. This is a growing trend in environmental analyses conducted by the U.S. government which HME finds very disturbing. Comments by Healing Ourselves and Mother Earth

The Western Shoshone Nation responds to the threat of another explosion at the Nevada Test Site code named “Divine Strake” intended to simulate effects of a nuclear weapon The explosion is condemned as related to further development of a new generation of weapons of mass destruction and a violation of International Law, US law and Western Shoshone law, custom and tradition.

Divine Strake Petition - Demand a full review and formal public hearings regarding the purposed Divine Strake open-air detonation at the Nevada Test Site! The federal government has performed only a minimal Environmental Assessment (EA) of the proposed test. Tribes were not consulted and there has been no meaningful period for public comment, public hearings, or enough details about the purpose of Divine Strake .A full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) would remedy these concerns, allow public hearings and a detailed explanation related to the purpose of the Divine Strake detonation.

Stop the bomb: Divine Strake's threat is real

Downwinder's Call for More Public Input on Divine Strake

April 4, 2006 - Western Shoshone Defense Project and Shundahai Network Release joint Statement on "Divine Strake"

In alliance with four other key groups, Shundahai Network helped form the Stop Divine Strake Coalition. As of May 28, 50 organizations have joined the coalition.

Pete Litster, executive director of Shundahai Network, joins Western Shoshone and downwinder's as a named plaintiff in a lawsuit against the U.S. government to stop Divine Strake. Read the fascinating Temporary Restraining Order filed by attorney Robert Hager. This motion, combined with the public outrage and protest, effectively caused the indefinite delay of the test.

Fireworks Deferred: Divine Strake, Hellish Repercussions by Chip Ward

Feds delay Divine Strake project to 2007 August 1, 2006

The Pentagon had scheduled a test code named "Divine Strake" at the Nevada Test Site, originally for June 2, 2006, then postponed until September, and now indefinitely.

The test is of a 700-ton ammonium nitrate/fuel oil bomb. Early reports indicated that this test was to "simulate" a low-yield nuclear explosion. In a Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) budget document this detonation was described as "a planning tool that will improve the war fighter's confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage." The DTRA is now denying this, and saying that the language in the budget document was a "goof" and should have been removed.

As noted in our joint press release with the Western Shoshone Defense Project, this detonation is yet another violation of the sovereignty of the Western Shoshone, and an escalation in the US weapons posture.

Less than 2 months ago, there was Krakatau, an underground sub-critical test, upcoming will be an above ground conventional test. What will be next? While the National Nuclear Security Administration claims that the only testing of new nuclear weapons will be through computer modeling, many weapons experts disagree, and believe that the US will resume testing.

Corbin Harney says "I do not appreciate what the U.S. Government is doing in regards to detonating bombs on the Western Shoshone land (Nevada Test Site). The Western Shoshone Nation made a treaty with the U.S. Government, in this treaty the U.S. promised to take care of this land. All I see is the U.S. poisoning our lands and our people. If they do not uphold their agreement with the Western Shoshone Nation, the people will rise up, and take back what is theirs. I hope we can support each other. I do not approve of any kind of bomb being detonated in or on Western Shoshone lands. Let's not let this continue. We must think of younger generations. We only have one earth that we live on, one water we drink and one air we breathe."

June 18, 2006 - May 22 RadioActive! Divine Strake  RadioActive! is a program on listener supported public radio station KRCL in Salt Lake City, Utah. Program includes Steve Erickson of Citizen's Education Project, and downwinder Michelle Thomas.

What is it?

• A mass of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO) with a C4 detonator. The ANFO components are the same as those used on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, but 280 times stronger.
• It will be deposited in a 30 foot deep hole above a tunnel complex and remotely detonated
• It is expected to send up a plume 10,000 feet into the air.
• It is also expected to generate a shock equivalent to from 3.1 to 3.4 on the Richter scale
• This site has excellent information on the technical specifics of the test.

What is it not?

• A test of a complete bomb or weapon.
• It has no nuclear components.
• It does not contain depleted uranium.

What is it for?

• The Defense Threat Reduction Agency submitted a budget document which stated that the purpose of the test is "to improve the warfighter's confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage."
• Seismic data will be collected to be used in developing computer models

When and where is the test?

• The test was originally scheduled for June 2, but has been postponed indefinitely.
• Nevada Test site, U16B Tunnel.

Why do we oppose it?

• This test, and all tests conducted on the Nevada Test Site violate the Treaty of Ruby Valley between the United States and the Western Shoshone people. The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found the United States to have violated the human rights of the Western Shoshone, and issued strong language in its decision urging the United States to freeze, stop,and desist from its actions against the Western Shoshone, including military testing.
• The Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the National Nuclear Security Administration did not follow proper procedure under the NEPA act. Under this act, certain parties, including ?American Indian tribes? must be informed of the action and an Environmental Assessment must be distributed to them. They must be allowed 30 days to comment. Our research shows that these parties were not informed. NNSA admits that no comments were received.
• The DTRA and NNSA cannot tell with certainty that radioactive particles from previous tests will not be thrown up into the atmosphere, and carried downwind. Communities in Utah, Nevada and Idaho could be affected.
• Because of the stated purpose of the test, and the coincidence of tests of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator at White Sands"to demonstrate the upper limit of conventional weapons to defeat hard targets," it is believed that this test is directly related to the development of nuclear bunker busters, despite the clear intent of Congress to eliminate this program. Given the growing tension with Iran, this test could be a precursor to a strike against Iran, with massive civilian casualties.

Shundahai Network 2006 Fact Sheet on Divine Strake

For the latest status and information on plans for Divine Strake from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

 

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