Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Plutonium from Fukushima is a global catastrophe. [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)67. LOL! Plutonium is good business.
I know that you know that I know that you know it's serious. The scary thing:
Fukushima, Plutonium, CIA, and the BFEE: Deep Doo-Doo Four Ways to Doomsday
The story connects a few dots from the present day back to World War II.
War crime, Yakuza, Secret Government. Why not?
Japans Nuclear Industry: The CIA Link.
By Eleanor Warnock
June 1, 2012, 10:18 AM JST.
Wall Street Journal Blog
Tetsuo Arima, a researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo, told JRT he discovered in the U.S. National Archives a trove of declassified CIA files that showed how one man, Matsutaro Shoriki, was instrumental in jumpstarting Japans nascent nuclear industry.
Mr. Shoriki was many things: a Class A war criminal, the head of the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japans biggest-selling and most influential newspaper) and the founder of both the countrys first commercial broadcaster and the Tokyo Giants baseball team. Less well known, according to Mr. Arima, was that the media mogul worked with the CIA to promote nuclear power.
SNIP...
Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shorikis behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.
SNIP
Mr. Shoriki, backed by the CIA, used his influence to publish articles in the Yomiuri that extolled the virtues of nuclear power, according to the documents found by Mr. Arima. Keen on remilitarizing Japan, Mr. Shoriki endorsed nuclear power in hopes its development would one day arm the country with the ability to make its own nuclear weapons, according to Mr. Arima. Mr. Shorikis behind-the-scenes push created a chain reaction in other media that eventually changed public opinion.
CONTINUED...
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/06/01/japans-nuclear-industry-the-cia-link/
After President Carter was out of office, it was pretty much full-steam ahead for the Japanese bomb during the Pruneface Ronnie-Poppy Bush years. Hence, Fukushima Daiichi Number 3 and other select Japanese reactors were set up to process plutonium uranium fuels.
United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium
By Joseph Trento
on April 9th, 2012
National Security News Service
The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals. These activities repeatedly violated U.S. laws regarding controls of sensitive nuclear materials that could be diverted to weapons programs in Japan. The NSNS investigation found that the United States has known about a secret nuclear weapons program in Japan since the 1960s, according to CIA reports.
The diversion of U.S. classified technology began during the Reagan administration after it allowed a $10 billion reactor sale to China. Japan protested that sensitive technology was being sold to a potential nuclear adversary. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations permitted sensitive technology and nuclear materials to be transferred to Japan despite laws and treaties preventing such transfers. Highly sensitive technology on plutonium separation from the U.S. Department of Energys Savannah River Site and Hanford nuclear weapons complex, as well as tens of billions of dollars worth of breeder reactor research was turned over to Japan with almost no safeguards against proliferation. Japanese scientist and technicians were given access to both Hanford and Savannah River as part of the transfer process.
SNIP...
A year ago a natural disaster combined with a man-made tragedy decimated Northern Japan and came close to making Tokyo, a city of 30 million people, uninhabitable. Nuclear tragedies plague Japans modern history. It is the only nation in the world attacked with nuclear weapons. In March 2011, after a tsunami swept on shore, hydrogen explosions and the subsequent meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant spewed radiation across the region. Like the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan will face the aftermath for generations. A twelve-mile area around the site is considered uninhabitable. It is a national sacrifice zone.
How Japan ended up in this nuclear nightmare is a subject the National Security News Service has been investigating since 1991. We learned that Japan had a dual use nuclear program. The public program was to develop and provide unlimited energy for the country. But there was also a secret component, an undeclared nuclear weapons program that would allow Japan to amass enough nuclear material and technology to become a major nuclear power on short notice.
CONTINUED...
http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html
Those of who have seen The World at War series on the tee vee are familiar with the black and white footage and great narrative chronicling the main events and figures of World War II. One of those episodes was entitled "The Bomb" and featured an interview with John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War to President Roosevelt and President Truman.
Here's part of what Mr. McCloy said about the Atomic Bomb the use of which he counseled only as a last resort, after warning Japan to surrender (around 7:30 mark of Part 2):
Besides that, weve got a new force, a new type of energy that will revolutionize warfare, destructive beyond any contemplation. Id said, Id mention the bomb. Mentioning the bomb, even at that late date, in that select group, was like, it was like they were all shocked. Because it was such a closely guarded secret. It was comparable to mentioning Skull and Bones at Yale which youre not supposed to do.
After the war, McCloy was the United States High Commissioner to Germany, administering the U.S. zone of occupation, making him one of the front-line leaders of the Cold War. In that capacity, one of the questionable things he did was to forgive several NAZI industrialists and war criminals.
The great cartoonist Herb Block, HERBLOCK, depicted McCloy holding open a prison door for a NAZI, while in the background Stalin took a photo (if anyone has a copy or link to the cartoon, Id be much obliged). About 15 years later, Mr. McCloy served the nation as a member of the Warren Commission.
While he wasnt a member of Skull and Bones, McCloy certainly worked closely with a bunch of them, including Averell Harriman and Prescott Bush. As a Wall Street and Washington insider, "Mr. Establishment" he was called, Mr. McCloy used the offices of government to centralize power and wealth. That is most un-democratic.
Mother Jones goes into detail:
The Nuclear Weapons Industry's Money Bombs
How millions in campaign cash and revolving-door lobbying have kept America's atomic arsenal off the chopping block.
By R. Jeffrey Smith, Center for Public Integrity
Mother Jones
Wed Jun. 6, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
Employees of private companies that produce the main pieces of the US nuclear arsenal have invested more than $18 million in the election campaigns of lawmakers that oversee related federal spending, and the companies also employ more than 95 former members of Congress or Capitol Hill staff to lobby for government funding, according to a new report.
The Center for International Policy, a nonprofit group that supports the "demilitarization" of US foreign policy, released the report on Wednesday to highlight what it described as the heavy influence of campaign donations and pork-barrel politics on a part of the defense budget not usually associated with large profits or contractor power: nuclear arms.
As Congress deliberated this spring on nuclear weapons-related projects, including funding for the development of more modern submarines and bombers, the top 14 contractors gave nearly $3 million to the 2012 reelection campaigns of lawmakers whose support they needed for these and other projects, the report disclosed.
Half of that sum went to members of the four key committees or subcommittees that must approve all spending for nuclear armsthe House and Senate Armed Services Committees and the Energy and Water or Defense appropriations subcommittees, according to data the Center compiled from the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. The rest went to lawmakers who are active on nuclear weapons issues because they have related factories or laboratories in their states or districts.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee this year have sought to erect legislative roadblocks to further reductions in nuclear arms, and also demanded more spending for related facilities than the Obama administration sought, including $100 million in unrequested funds for a new plant that will make plutonium cores for nuclear warheads, and $374 million for a new ballistic missile-firing submarine. The House has approved those requests, but the Senate has not held a similar vote on the 2013 defense bill.
CONTINUED...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nuclear-bombs-congress-elections-campaign-donations
It isn't ironic or coincidental. It is the Establishment, the in-group, the Elite, the One-Percent thats pretty much gotten the lions share of the wealth created over the last 50 years. The same group thats pretty much had their fingers on the atomic button ever since the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as profited from the development of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and the almost continuous state of war since then. For lack of a better term, I call them the BFEE, or War Party.
Original OP. Thanks for standing up to them, ChisolmTrailDem!
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
226 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Thanks, Cleita. That's why I posted. Few who know are talking about Fukushima in public.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#3
Maybe when people start discovering they have polluted a whole food supply chain, they will
Cleita
Jan 2014
#6
Stephanie Miller isn't all that smart. She means well, but she's not one to go to for info.
cui bono
Jan 2014
#97
1 Millionth of One Gram of Inhaled Plutonium Will Give You Cancer -- Helen Caldicott, MD
Octafish
Jan 2014
#9
our granddaughter wanted to spend this summer in Japan... that was nixed in a heartbeat
secondwind
Jan 2014
#11
You first, (in the hug your plutonium for real department with no shielding)
nadinbrzezinski
Jan 2014
#35
Something like 80% of the mass of the core of the reactor at Chernobyl
AtheistCrusader
Jan 2014
#131
They must not like the smell of plutonium and stapelia gigantea. Sucks the breath right out of them
lonestarnot
Jan 2014
#147
EDIT: Original line here contained statistics I pulled out of my ass. It was wrong, and I apologize.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#33
That is the stupidest thing I've read all day! Just how the fuck can you say that? You have
ChisolmTrailDem
Jan 2014
#44
"Octafish, is there anyone who disagrees with you that isn't a COINTELPRO operative? "...
SidDithers
Jan 2014
#61
If you want honest discussion, don't attribute to me what I didn't write then.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#62
For the record, I enjoyed the DU Mail back and forth just a few minutes ago.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#76
Again, at levels far, far below levels that would cause even minor health risks.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#91
Except that study indicated the plutonium, americium, and uranium levels corroborated with pre-2000
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#144
As a child in the 1950s, I got lots of propaganda about the "promise of the peaceful atom."
LongTomH
Jan 2014
#78
It's a disaster on a planetary scale and yet Corporate Media pretend it isn't.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#94
I try not to dwell on this because, frankly, there's Jack Shit that I can do about it.
Electric Monk
Jan 2014
#99
I feel that way too, Electric Monk. Problem is, TEPCO also feels that way, too.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#107
Here's a report on plutonium from Fukushima: only detectable very close to the reactor
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#103
How Dangerous Is 400-6000 Pounds Of Plutonium Nano Particle Dust Liberated By Fukushima?
Octafish
Jan 2014
#148
What does Helen Caldicott's position on transparency have to do with the validity of her claims?
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#151
No. Caldicott made a mistake, based on what was then known. A lot different than what you call her.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#159
No, she took a study that fit her preconceptions despite its numerous known flaws
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#161
Release of plutonium isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident
SidDithers
Jan 2014
#163
It may have to do with clouding the central issue: Fukushima is a global catastrophe.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#171
You continually claim the plutonium from Fukushima is a 'global catastrophe' without any evidence
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#173
I gave you science from sources independent of TEPCO, or governments, in #103
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#176
Great. And I gave you sources in #105 that showed where it was found 25 miles away from FNPP.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#177
Right. But it's plutonium and found 25 times further from the plant than you reported in #103.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#181
I'd rather people get the facts and use them to set policy. The phrase is democracy.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#184
For the cost of Iraq War, we could've built National 100% Renewable Clean Energy Grid.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#224
Don't worry. The situation may even be worse than what's posted on this thread.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#188
Unfortunately, the facts say otherwise: Plutonium from Fukushima is a global catastrophe.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#185
I read the article where the scientist from NMSU said they detected plutonium on March 14, 2011.
Octafish
Jan 2014
#207
There's a big difference between depleted uranium and the nearly-undetectable cesium in tuna.
NuclearDem
Jan 2014
#216
An Admirable Ability. Here's what Physicians for Social Responsibility said back in March, 2011...
Octafish
Jan 2014
#223
Did they ask: 'What if the Fukushima nuclear fallout crisis had happened here?'
Octafish
Jan 2014
#221