Did You Know...
Humans are already living and working in space and hundreds of satellites are helping us communicate, navigate and observe earth, and space stations are already built. It is now a matter of "how" we are going to go further into space...with weapons or with world cooperation.

A Prayer for America

(to be sung as an overture for America)

"My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. . . . From every mountain side, let freedom ring. . . . Long may our land be bright. With freedom's holy light. . . ."

"Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

"America, America, God shed grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. . . . "

I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time.

With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicate in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free.

I offer this prayer for America.

Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?

How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?

We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and Internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.

We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.

Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.

Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq. We did not authorize the invasion of Iran. We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea. We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan. We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay. We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention. We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus. We did not authorize assassination squads. We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO. We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.

We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution. We did not authorize national identity cards. We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities. We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy.

Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.

Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.

Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.

Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic. That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions. Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the legislation. Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.

Let us work for a world where America can lead the way in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom.

America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good, America.

America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good.

Thank you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PEACE IN SPACE PEACE ON EARTH

By Bea Bernhausen

While all around us political and social turmoil rages on both local and global fronts, and our attention is focused on thousands of different worthy causes, a far larger agenda is being quietly slipped by behind our backs. That is the withdrawal from the ABM treaty by the US, in order to clear the way for the deployment of the Missile Defense System, which in simple terms is merely an excuse for the weaponization of space. In section 1, Article 5 of the original ABM Treaty, signed in 1972 by the US and the then Soviet Union, it states: "Each Party undertakes not to develop, test or deploy ABM systems or components which are sea-based, air-based, space-based, or mobile land based." Hence the necessity of breaking this treaty.

Professor John Valleau of Toronto University, in an article in the Globe and Mail in Jan. 2000, poses the following question: "What can be driving the Missile Defense Project? The answer may lie in a little-known plan for the United States to dominate and colonize outer space. This sounds absurd and paranoid, but it is all laid out in the mission statements of the United States Space Command. The basic document, 'Vision for 2020'is already five years old, [now 7] .This and the later Long Range Plan fleshing out the 'vision' are publicly available on the web, at: http://www.peterson.af.mil/usspace/LRP/cover.htm , copies can be found also on the Project Ploughshares Web site http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/ABOLISH%20NUCS/BMD%20Page/BMD.update.htm [(I highly recommend looking this up---it is a REAL eye-opener-B.B.)]

The Space Command describes its role as 'dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and investment [and] integrating Space Forces into war-fighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict'. This is a clear plan to militarize space with US weapons, and to seek the ability to 'deny others the use of space'. .Then, to put the Space Command Plans in place, the United States will have to abrogate, or ignore, the anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty." Prophetic words indeed -written nearly two years before the advent of 9-11,-our very convenient "reason" for a necessary "war on terrorism", followed closely by the abrogation by the US from the ABM Treaty.

While the proposed intention of the Missile Defense Shield is to enhance the "war on terrorism", the ability of the system to deliver this is in strong dispute. David Wright, physicist and researcher at 'The Union Of Concerned Scientists and the MIT Security Program', and Theodore Postol, also a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security at MIT in a May 11, 2000 Boston Globe article stated the following: " The chief difficulty in trying to develop missile defenses is not getting vast systems of complex hardware to work as intended -although that is a daunting task. The key problem is that the defense has to work against an enemy who is trying to foil the system. What's worse the attacker can do so with technology much simpler than the technology needed for the defense system.

This inherent asymmetry means that the attacker has the advantage despite the technological edge the United States has over a potential attacker..our study showed in detail that the planned defense won't be able to ..work against [these] countermeasures." The US Intention to unilaterally control space is pretty obvious, and therefore the speedy withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. A Feb.1 USA Today article puts it this way. "The Bush Doctrine is the natural development of a US centered world view in which the United States unilaterally pursues its objectives as it sees fit. The Kyoto Treaty can be ignored, the ABM Treaty violated, the Land Mines Treaty unsigned and the space defense shield given massive funding, even if Sept. 11th demonstrated that it would have been no defense at all against those acts of terror."

While it would appear from corporate media accounts that the rest of the world is solidly behind the US plans, the following UN General Assembly vote tells a different story: Below, thanks to the staff members at the UN General Assembly in New York and at the UN Outer Space Committee in Vienna Austria, are the vote tallies on the two most recent UN Resolutions on Preventing an Arms Race in Space.

NOTE - There are many no-shows at UN votes. The tallies below show who showed up for the vote on the Resolutions to prevent an arms race in space. They PROVE that nearly ALL of the UN member nations participating in these General Assembly votes support a ban on space-based weapons. NONE voted against the resolutions. Only 3 or 4 nations abstain from voting. On November 29, 2001, in a UN General Assembly vote unanimously approved the basis for a world treaty establishing a permanent ban on space-based weapons, in Resolution 56/535, adopted by a 156-0 vote, with 4 abstentions. Significantly, the United States and Israel were among the four nations abstaining (Georgia and Micronesia were the other two abstaining nations).

All of this points to the obvious conclusion that the US intends to dominate space---and hence the planet. With the technology available today-once in outer space this ambition will be unstoppable. Dr Nick Begich in his book "Earthrising" states: " The pace of technological change is so pervasive , so rapid and so specialized that many of the advances escape the average person in society.Simply, all of the technology that has been created since the invention of the wheel is being doubled every nine to ten months". This was written three years ago. Those of you who read my recent article on HAARP (High Active Auroral Research Project) will realize that we are no longer just talking about guns and missiles in terms of warfare,---but a very advanced system of electromagnetic pulse systems that can be used against both hardware and humans. Dr Begich states "What we know now is that the most powerful weapons systems will be those which subdue populations through the use of subtle energy fields.[they] can be used to create total disorientation in people, interfere with long term and short term memory, control emotions (thus control actions), transmit suggestions and produce an experience set and delete an experience set", among many other ways to completely control human beings. This is just one of the aspects of the technology that's available today---and once deployed in space means complete control not only of the planet, but of our very being. This in essence is the aim of the US government.

The ultimate US resolution of the "war on terrorism" can be nothing short of the total control of all "rogue" beings. "You are either with us or against us".. But it doesn't have to be that way. There is an alternative proposition in progress in the US spearheaded by Congressman Dennis Kucinich who on January 23rd of this year introduced a bill to prevent the weaponization of space, Bill HR3616 which can be viewed at www.peaceinspace.com . Congressman Kucinich stated the following: "We signed the ABM treaty nearly 30 years ago; which requires a reduction in strategic arms, nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Weaponization of space clearly violates that treaty. My bill will call for an immediate and permanent termination of research, testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons systems and components by any person, agency or contractor of the U.S. government ."

A U.S. national and a world movement is rapidly networking to build support for the U.S. legislation (Bill HR3616) and a World Treaty that will ban space-based weapons. The intention is to pass this ban into national and world law this year. Further testing of missile defense space-based weapons will be halted, BEFORE President Bush breaks the ABM Treaty, and BEFORE an unstoppable momentum of vested interests can deploy them under the guise of it being "MERELY testing," On December 13, 2001, Bush announced the U.S. will unilaterally abrogate the ABM Treaty in June, thus accelerating the space-based weapons program amid an atmosphere of fear and terrorism,----- and the movement to prevent it.

The organization educating about the "Space Preservation Treaty", to replace the outgoing ABM Treaty, is the Institute for Cooperation In Space (ICIS), spearheaded by Dr. Carol Rosin. Dr. Carol Rosin, President of ICIS, a former educator, space and missile defense consultant, aerospace executive and spokesperson for the late Dr. Wernher von Braun, "father of rocketry," has testified before the US Congress and international leaders. According to Military Space (July '84) "Rosin is regarded to be the original political architect of the move to stop the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) and ASATs (Anti-satellite weapons)." Rosin says, "We've learned that stating the dangers, costs, and fallacies of the space-based weapon system will not stop them from being researched and developed, whether it is called the SDI, NMD, BMD or Star Wars. We've heard the ever-changing rationales for why this system is supposedly needed. In fact, under the guise of 'national security' and 'it's only research(!)' this has become the largest R&D program in history. We are calling for just the removal of the mandate to weaponize space and, simultaneously, for continued peaceful (non space based weapons) civil, military and commercial space R&D, applications and exploration. This bill will soon become U.S. law and a forth coming world treaty will inact the world law to ban space-based weapons. The timing is right. Everyone and everything is in place.

It will be easy to transform the space-based weapons industry into a cooperative world space industry that will stimulate the economy, create new jobs and training programs, and expand a strong national and global security system based on a world cooperation. Imagine the exciting opportunities and benefits that will be made available to all. It's our choice." As Dr. Rosin said in a recent speech "It is OUR responsibility, our RESPONSIBILITY, to educate about the new Space Age paradigm and this new way of thinking, about the legislation and the compatible Space Preservation Treaty, to get it passed into law while we still can, to make sure that space technology and services get applied to solving urgent humanitarian and environmental problems, and to preserve our sacred space for the children. Timing is of the essence. We have only a few months before the ABM Treaty is going to be abrogated, in June. People are calling, faxing congress members and world leaders (free via the www.peaceinspace.com website), and are writing and calling members of the US congress and administration, and nation-state/world leaders, to request their support and signatures. Leaders of Canada, Russia, and China have publicly stated they are ready to ban space-based weapons.

People are contacting the leaders to request they introduce and sign the Space PreservationTreaty and invite all other leaders to do the same. The ICIS FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions (see website), has continually updated sample letters and addresses. Lack of space (no pun intended) doesn't allow me to present the entire ICIS plan for the implementation of the "Space Preservation Treaty", but the plan is laid out in full at the ICIS website www.peacinspace.com . The present stage in the Action Plan is a letter writing campaign, for which directions are given at the website. We ask you to please become involved in this perhaps our last chance to change the tide of control, fear and hate on this planet. But that's not all.

The force we build by standing together, moving in a positive direction can and will spill over to all other areas. We can build a momentum which will change the tide, change the negative thinking now predominant on this planet. Technology is a double edged sword. It's possible uses for healing are as great as they are for destroying. We are at the last threshold; the choice is up to us. Why not take a chance--for once join forces and stand unified behind this plan, along with the hundreds of organizations that are already doing so. Keeping weapons out of space is one of the most important and possibly the most important contribution our generation can make for our suffering life forms and environment on our planet, and for the children. Space holds the key to peace on Earth. Other Members of ICIS are:

Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd, ICIS co-director, is a graduate of Yale Law School and former futurist at Stanford Research Institute. He has been general counsel to the NYC Environmental Protection Administration and environmental consultant to the Ford Foundation. Mr. Webre was delegate to the UNISPACE Outer Space conference, and NGO representative at the United Nations. He lives and works in Vancouver BC, and heads the local initiative of the ICIS campaign. He can be contacted at info@peaceinspace.com .

Daniel Sheehan, ICIS co-director and general counsel, Harvard Law School graduate, and has worked on cases such as the Karen Silkwood case, Pentagon Papers case, Three mile Island and the Iran contra case. He has also supervised professional investigations into the illegal smuggling of weapons grade plutonium, the illegal supply of arms to terrorist organizations by covert operations and government agents, and into ultra-"black" weapons programs unknown even to the most trusted congressional officials.

Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell Sc.D, Advisory Board Chairman, was lunar module pilot on Appollo 14, spending a record 33 hours and 31 minutes on the lunar surface. He founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Palo Alto, and has been presented with numerous Special Honours including Presidential Medal of Freedom (1970), Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1971), Navy Astronaut Wings, among many others.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke Honorary Board Chair - The Honorable Sir Arthur Clarke's invention of satellite communication using satellites in geostationary orbit in '45 has brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship; a gold medal of the Franklin Institute; the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. He is the author of more than sixty books with more than 50 million copies in print, winner of all the field's highest honors. He is past Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the Royal Astronomical Society and many other scientific organizations. Sir Arthur was presented the "Award of Knight Bachelor" on 26 May, 2000, at a ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he has lived since 1956.

For further information please contact Dr Carol Rosin rosin@west.net, Alfred Webre info@peaceinspace.com, (update list) or myself, Bea Bernhausen beabernhausen@yahoo.com For activist information, the ICIS Plan of Action, the full text of the US Congress Bill HR3616, the "Space Preservation Treaty" and FAQ please visit the website www.peaceinspace.com

Take care
and thanks so much for all you do

Peace
Bea

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