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Additional Articles
General Leslie "Dick" Groves and the Fake Moon Landings!!
This exposé is going to the MOON!!
General Groves was born in upstate New York on August 17, 1896. His
father was a "Presbyterian" minister and Army chaplain. Like
"Baptist" Rockefeller he had the perfect disguise.
The ONLY verse in the Bible that Groves knew was Matthew 6:3: "But
when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand
doeth."
General Groves was not interested in giving money to the poor . . .
in secret . . . or in public!! He applied that verse to the making
of the ATOMIC BOMB.
The entire Manhattan Project was conducted with the utmost secrecy.
Even the people working in the factories that produced the uranium
and plutonium were kept in the dark. This secrecy would be a dress
rehearsal for another multi-billion dollar Pentagon project: man on
the moon!!
General Groves (1896-1970).
President Truman did not know of the bomb's existence until after he
was sworn in as President on April 12, 1945. General Groves built
the Pentagon!!
The Pentagon in Wash. DeCeit was built by General Groves.
The Pentagon in Wash. DeCeit General Groves. was built by Colonel
Groves began building the Pentagon on Sept 11, 1941, and the massive
fortress was completed in Jan. 1943.
In September 1942 he was placed in charge of the Manhattan Engineer
Project, established a month earlier, with the rank of Temporary
Brigadier General. The Manhattan Engineer Project was the cover name
for the atomic bomb project and, under his direction, the basic
atomic bomb research was carried out, mainly at Columbia University
and the University of Chicago. Project plants were established at
the Clinton Laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Hanford Engineer
Works near Pasco, Washington, and the secluded Los Alamos
installation in New Mexico.
Atomic scientist said Groves built the bomb "to subdue the
Soviets"!!
Dr. Joseph Rotblat was one of the scientists who worked on the
atomic bomb at Los Alamos. He heard Groves say the the main reason
for the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.... In 1944, Dr. Rotblat left
Los Alamos in disgust:
" IN MARCH 1944 I experienced a
disagreeable shock. At that time I was living with the Chadwicks
in their house on the Mesa, before moving later to the "Big
House;" the quarters for single scientists. General Leslie
Groves, when visiting Los Alamos, frequently came to the
Chadwicks for dinner and relaxed palaver. During one such
conversation Groves said that, of course, the real purpose in
making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets. (Whatever his exact
words, his real meaning was clear.)
Although I had no illusions about
the Stalin regime— after all, it was his pact with Hitler that
enabled the latter to invade Poland—I felt deeply the sense of
betrayal of an ally. Remember, this was said at a time when
thousands of Russians were dying every day on the Eastern Front,
tying down the Germans and giving the Allies time to prepare for
the landing on the continent of Europe. Until then I had thought
that our work was to prevent a Nazi victory, and now I was told
that the weapon we were preparing was intended for use against
the people who were making extreme sacrifices for that very
aim."
(Dr. Rotblat, Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists, p. 18).
Groves needed ROCKETS to deliver his
weapons of mass destruction!!
Now that Groves had his super weapon, he needed a delivery method.
His long range bombers could not reach all parts of the Soviet Union
from Germany or Japan. Compared to rockets, bombers were slow and
easy targets of anti-aircraft fire. Nazi Germany was in the process
of developing rockets to deliver nukes to London and Moscow.
The rocket factory was a notorious
underground factory:
V2 rocket fired at Peenemünde in
North-West Germany during WW II
The Nazis realized very early that ROCKETS were the ideal
delivery method for weapons of mass destruction. Due to allied
bombing, they had to locate the rocket factory underground:
"The Allies discovered Dora and
the Mittelwerk when United States Army troops entered the
area on April 11, 1945. They unearthed a human disaster that
had been planned by the Nazi regime, executed by the SS, and
compounded by the economic collapse of the Third Reich in
the final weeks of the war. The victorious army discovered
corpses everywhere. Hundreds of victims had been dumped on
the ground adjacent to the crematorium, a low building part
way up a hill. In the days before liberation, thousands died
of starvation and cholera.
Bodies were fed into the ovens
four at a time, day and night, but piled up faster than the
ovens could consume them. At the nearby city of Nordhausen,
the Nazis also created an associated camp to house even more
slaves for the Mittelwerk. It, too, was littered with
corpses. By one estimate, it held 6,000 bodies in varying
stages of decomposition.
During their two years of
operation, 60,000 inmates passed through the Mittlewerk and
the Dora, Nordhausen, and associated concentration camps; at
least 25,000 died there."
(Piszkiewicz, Wernher von
Braun: The Man who Sold the Moon, p. 49).
Dr. Robert Goddard—the father of rocketry—died a very timely death!!
Dr. Robert Goddard, a Massachusetts professor who relocated to the
wide open spaces of New Mexico in 1930, was the father of rocketry:
Dr. Robert Goddard (Oct. 5, 1882-Aug. 10, 1945).
Dr. Robert Goddard (Oct. 5, 1882-Aug. 10, 1945) was the inventor of
the missile or rocket. He held over 200 patents on all phases of
rocket design. He received some help from the Smithsonian
Institution and the Guggenheim Foundation but most of his work was
accomplished alone.
Until 1942, he received no help from the military. Then he was
invited to leave his home in Roswell, New Mexico, and move to
Annapolis, Maryland, to work for the Navy on rocket design. This was
a very strange request because the Nazi rocketeers were sent to
White Sands, New Mexico, to perfect Dr. Goddard's rockets.
When the captured German missiles were shipped from Peenemüde to
Maryland, Dr. Goddard saw right away that all of them were his
design!!
He was a pacifist at heart and envisioned rockets as a way of going
to outer space. He would never give General Groves his patents to
make rockets to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
Journey to the moon man Wernher von Braun was an SS Major!!
Wernher von Brain—the moonfaker— was a Major in the dreaded SS:
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) was a Sturmbannfüehrer in the dreaded
SS. This was the equivalent of Major in the U.S. Army. The rockets
were all based on Dr. Goddard's design and produced by slave labor
from the Dora-Mittelwerk concentration camp:
Heinrich Himmler, Reichführer SS visits Peenemünde. The Wernher von
Braun (right front), despite having his man in the black SS uniform
standing behind Himmler is arm in a cast, was confident and in good
spirits Wernher von Braun. To the left of Himmler is Major General
after he and Gen. Walter Dornberger (left front, Walter Dornberger,
commanding officer of the Peenemünde holding a cigar), and others
surrendered to the Rocket Facility. United States Army on May 2,
1945.
Group photo of Nazis at Peenemünde showing von Braun in the center
and not wearing his SS uniform.
Top Nazis visit Peenemünde on May 26, 1943. Wernher von Braun is
second from right and not wearing his SS uniform.
Von Braun arrived in the U.S. just after the death of Dr. Goddard!!
Von Braun was one of a group of 7 Nazi rocketeers who arrived in the
U.S. on Sept. 18, 1945:
"The young man who stepped off the
C54 cargo plane thought of himself as an immigrant who like many
before him came to America to pursue his dream, build a new
life, and leave behind crimes of the past. His arrival at
Newcastle Army Air Base in Wilmington, Delaware, on September
18, 1945 was a second birth, and the official circumstance was a
baptism that cleansed him of the original sin of his first life
.
He arrived not as a free man, however, but in the custody of the
United States Army. He was one of a group of seven German rocket
experts, the vanguard of a larger team that the Army recruited
under Operation Overcast (later renamed Project Paperclip) to
exploit for their technical expertise. He was the senior member
of the group although not the oldest, and he had been its leader
in Germany since the beginning, even before the Nazis came to
power. His name was Wernher von Braun."
(Piszkiewicz, Wernher von Braun:
The Man who Sold the Moon, p. 5).
Rockefeller owned Collier's magazine
launched the career of Wernher von Braun!!
In 1952, the Pentagon assigned Wernher von Braun a ghostwriter and
he wrote several articles for Rockefeller owned Collier's magazine
about space travel and journeys to the moon and Mars:
Moonfakers at work for Collier's magazine
Participants at the Collier's magazine symposium in New York City in
early 1952 that led to the publication of a seminal eight-article
series on space travel. Left to right, science writer and rocket
expert Willy Ley; Dr. Fred L. Whipple, chairman, Department of
Astronomy, Harvard University; von Braun; artists Chesley Bonestell,
Rolf Klep, and Fred Freeman; and Cornelius Ryan, series editor as
well as associate editor at Collier's.
Walt Disney disinfected Wernher von Braun!!
After WW II, ex-Nazis were not very popular in the U.S. Especially
war criminals like Wernher von Braun. If he was to lead the Pentagon
space program, he would need an image overhaul. This is where Walt
Disney entered the picture. Disney had a snow white image and nobody
would suspect him of working with SS Nazis rocketeers.
Walt Disney and Wernher von Braun. Von Braun was technical director
for Walt's "man to the moon" movie.
He also advised Disney on "Tomorrowland" at Disneyland in
California.
In 1954, Walt Disney - of Mickey Mouse fame - liked the Collier's
magazine articles so much that he decided to hire von Braun as a
"technical director " on "Tomorrowland" at his new theme park in
California called Disneyland.
In 1955, Walt Disney made 3 TV movies with von Braun as technical
director: Man in Space, First Men to the Moon, and Journey to Mars.
The TV movies looked so realistic that the millions who watched them
were brainwashed into believing that they were real!!
The Pentagon desperately needed money to build ICBM's and rockets
that would be able to deliver weapons of mass destruction to the
Soviet Union.
If Walt Disney could simulate a moon landing in a studio (much
cheaper), then the $20 billion dollars which Congress appropriated
for the moon landing could be used to fight the Cold War with the
Soviet Union instead!! The space race and the Vietnam War would also
DISTRACT the people while Rockefeller stole the Presidency without
an election.
Walt Disney and Wernher von Braun. Von Braun was technical director
for Walt's "man to the moon" movie. He also advised Disney on "Tomorrowland"
at Disneyland in California.
Science FICTION changed into science FACT very quickly when the
Pentagon needed funds to develop rockets to deliver weapons of mass
destruction to Russia:
Wernher von Braun's "book" based on the Collier's magazine science
fiction series.
2 astronauts land on the moon in the Wernher von Braun book. This
science fiction book was actually more factual than NASA because it
showed STARS in the background!!
Lunar lander from the 1953 science fiction book Conquest of the Moon
by Wernher von Braun and Cornelius Ryan.
NASA Lunar Module LM that put Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on the
moon in July 1969!!
Van Allen Radiation Belt.
Deadly radiation belt beginning at about 400 miles and stretching
out for thousands of miles were discovered by Artist Chesley
Bonestell and Wernher von Braun with a model of the moonship.
Explorer I in 1958. This cosmic
radiation will literally FRY humans or animals who venture into its
deadly path.
The Van Allen Radiation Belt
Here is a quote about just one of the dangers of space travel from
scientist von Braun in his 1960 book: First Men to the Moon:
"Finally, there is the Van Allen
Radiation Belt (page 69). Just a little over a year ago we
didn't even know it existed. Explorer I, equipped to measure the
intensity of the previously mentioned cosmic radiation, gave us
the first indication that there was something completely
unsuspected up there. Two more Explorers unveiled the fact that
the earth is surrounded with two concentric, doughnut-shaped
rings of "trapped radiation."
Electrically charged
particles—apparently mainly electrons— endlessly circle around
and up and down the magnetic field lines which connect the
magnetic North and South Poles like a grid of meridians. When a
rocket flies through this belt the trapped electrons impinge on
its skin like raindrops hitting an aircraft which is flying
through the clouds.
Very much in the same fashion as the
impinging raindrops cause sound waves audible within the
airplane cabin, the impinging electrons produce an
electromagnetic radiation inside the cabin. Physicists use for
this kind of radiation the German word bremsstrahlung
(slow-down radiation), but it is actually something quite
similar to X-rays. It is this bremsstrahlung that we have
to watch in the Belt."
(First Men to the Moon, p.19).
The Joke's on US . . . and the World!!
Wernher von Braun poses with some of the key staff of the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Huntsville, Alabama. From left to
right: Ernst Stuhlinger (seated); Maj. Gen. Holger N. Toftoy,
commanding officer; Hermann Oberth (foreground), the father of
German rocketry who worked for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at
Huntsville from 1955 to 1959; Wernher von Braun; and Eberhard Rees,
deputy director, Development Operations Division.
Apollo 11 officials are in a festive mood after its successful
liftoff on July 16, 1969. They are, from left to right: Charles W.
Matthews, deputy associate administrator for Manned Space Flight;
Wernher von Braun, director of Marshall Space Flight Center; George
E. Mueller, associate administrator for Manned Space Flight; and Lt.
Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, director of the Apollo Program.
President Kennedy visited von Braun just before his assassination!!
President Kennedy, Wernher von Braun, General McMorrow, and
Vice-President Johnson at the Redstone Arsenal airstrip shortly
after arriving from Washington for the September 1962 tour of
Marshall Space Flight Center.
One of the last photos of President Kennedy taken before his
assassination a week later on Nov. 22.
President Kennedy and NASA administrator James T. Webb at the launch
Operations Complex during a tour of NASA in Nov. 1963. Did Kennedy
decide to talk about von Braun and his fake moon landing? If he had,
this was another reason for Rockefeller and the Pentagon to order
his assassination!!
Wernher von Braun died a very timely death too!!
Like Dr. Goddard, von Braun died a very timely death on June 17,
1977. He was 65 years old but he was very fit and active all his
life. After the "moon landings" he became a celebrity and was
constantly in demand as a public speaker. At least 25 colleges gave
him honorary degrees. The other astronots kept a low profile and
avoided any kind of publicity but the fear was that Wernher might
have "loose lips" and let the moon hoax slip:
Von Braun water-boarding on the Tennessee River near Guntersville,
Alabama, in 1951. Next to flying
von Braun's favorite pastime was water sports. For years he kept a
houseboat as well as a speedboat for weekend relaxation.
Von Braun at the South Pole on Jan. 7, 1967. Von Braun was at the
South Pole collecting meteorites which would later become MOON
ROCKS!!
Von Braun looking fit and trim at 64. In 1976, he was working hard
for Fairchild Industries, Germantown, Maryland. A year later he
would be dead with cancer.... Perhaps a timely vaccination???
Nelson Rockefeller liked to use vaccination to get rid of people
including his own boss President Ford:
Moonfaker Neil Armstrong said "he never even dreamed of going to the
moon"
Astronot Neil Armstrong - the supposedly first man on
the moon - was totally opposite to Wernher von Braun in personality.
Neil kept a very, very low profile and that probably saved his life.
Here is a quote from an authorized
biography of Neil Armstrong:
"When Neil started as a professor at
the University of Cincinnati in 1970, news executives from the
area's radio, TV, and print media were summoned to a downtown
restaurant to hear an ultimatum: They were not to request
interviews with the space hero who would be living in their
midst, because none would be granted; they were to totally
ignore his presence and not consider it legitimate news.
Amazingly, the group agreed—with one exception. Lawrence H.
Rogers, then head of Taft Broadcasting Corporation, owners of a
chain of
television and radio stations in the region, howled in protest.
"The reason they gave was that Neil had no secretary and would
be overwhelmed with requests. I raised my hand and said, 'That's
the most preposterous thing I have ever heard.' I told them
Armstrong was the most famous explorer since Christopher
Columbus; it would have been criminal journalistically to not
write about him and praise what he had accomplished."
(Wagener, One Giant Leap." pp.
298-299).
And another quote from moonstruck Neil
Armstrong:
"As for walking on the moon,
sometimes I wonder if that really happened. I can honestly
say—and it's a great surprise to me that I have never had a
dream about being on the moon. It's a great disappointment to
me."
(Wagener, One Giant Leap, p.
303).
Vital links
References
-
Clary, David A. Rocket Man: Robert
H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age. Hyperion Press, New
York, 2003.
-
Dewey, Anne Perkins. Robert Goddard
Space Pioneer. Little, Brown & Co., New York, 1962.
-
Groves, Leslie R. Now It Can Be
Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper & Brothers, New
York, 1962.
-
Hawkins, Charles. How America Faked
the Moon Landings. GTI Pub., New Port, MN. 2004.
-
Henshall, Philip. Vengeance:
Hitler's Nuclear Weapons Fact or Fiction. Sutton Publishing,
Gloustershire, England, 1995.
-
Lawren, William. The General and the
Bomb. Biography of General Leslie R. Groves. Dodd, Mead & Co.,
New York, 1988.
-
Lehman, Milton. This High Man: The
Life of Robert H. Goddard. Farrar, Straus & Co., New York, 1963.
-
Michel Jean. Dora Concentration
Camp. (Translated from the French by Jennifer Kidd). Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1975.
-
Mader, Julius. Geheimnis von
Huntsville. Dei wahre Karriere des Raketenbarons Wernher von
Braun. (Secrets of Huntsville: the War Career of Baron Wernher
von Braun), Berlin 1965. No English translation yet!!
-
Norris, Robert S. Racing for the
Bomb. Steerforth Press, Vermont, 2002.
-
Piszkiewicz, Dennis. Wernher von
Braun: the Man Who Sold the Moon. Preager Press, Westport,
Connecticut, 1998.
-
Piszkiewicz, Dennis. The Nazi
Rocketeers. Dreams of Space and Crimes of War, Westport,
Connecticut, 1998.
-
Sellier, André. A History of the
Dora Camp. Ivan R. Dee. Chicago, 2003.
-
Stuhlinger, Ernst, Wernher von
Braun. An Illustrated Memoir. Krieger Publishing Co., Malabar,
Florida, 1994.
-
Von Braun, Wernher, Conquest of the
Moon. Edited by Cornelius Ryan. Viking Press, New York, 1953.
-
Von Braun, Wernher. First Men to the
Moon. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York, 1958,1959,1960.
-
Wagener, Leon, One Giant Leap: Neil
Armstrong's Stellar American Journey. Tom Doherty Assoc.,LLC.
New York, 2004.
Black sailors
nuked by Navy in A-bomb test at Port Chicago!!
"This new phenomenon would also lead
to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable— though much
less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may
thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat
and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port
together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such
bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation
by air."
(Albert Einstein letter to
President Roosevelt, Aug. 1939).
The first atomic bomb dropped on Japan
was the NEVER TESTED gun-assembly device!!
The inventor of the gun-assembly device was Navy Captain William "Deak"
Parsons. So confident was he of his invention that he felt that no
test was necessary of the most important part of the bomb: the
nuclear chain reaction:
Captain William "Deak" Parsons was the inventor of the gun-assembly
device for Little Boy. He armed the bomb during the flight to
Hiroshima and was in charge of dropping the atomic bomb on the city.
This grim Roman Catholic Fatima Crusader was a man with a mission:
to develop a super weapon that would finally give a knockout blow to
the Pope's enemies.
"The limitation on Little Boy was
not its design but the slow, difficult process of separating
uranium-235 from ore-grade uranium. After millions of dollars
and months of work, the ability of the Oak Ridge plant to
produce enough uranium-235 for more than one bomb by August 1945
was problematical. This meant no advance testing of a complete
uranium bomb; its first use would be against the enemy. Parsons
and his gun group were confident that no advance test was
needed. Much of this confidence stemmed from the rigorous tests
Parsons had demanded of all the non-nuclear components”.
Christman, Target Hiroshima: Deak
Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, pp. 149-150
That is like building a rocket ship and
testing every part . . . .except the engine. Or designing a gun and
never pulling the trigger with a bullet inside to see if it
works.... It's pure FICTION as we will PROVE by subsequent events!!
The first bomb was designed to work like the barrel of a gun:
In the gun-assembly method, a sub critical mass of uranium-235 (the
projectile) is fired down a cannon barrel into another sub critical
mass of U-235 (the target), which is placed in front of the muzzle.
Both gun and target are encased in the bomb. When projectile and
target contact, they form a critical mass which explodes. If the
firing is not fast enough, the neutrons emitted by the projectile
will begin interacting with the target before the contact and before
the mass has become critical. In this case, a pre-detonation occurs.
Plutonium will NOT WORK with the
gun-assembly device so only one bomb of this type was used.
Little Boy: This weapon of mass
destruction was a gun-type device. In the bomb that destroyed
Hiroshima, two pieces of uranium were literally blown together
by high explosives in a device similar to an artillery
barrel—creating the chain reaction that led to the explosion.
The destructive force of "Little Boy" was seven times greater
than all the bombs the Allies dropped on Nazi Germany during
1942.
This device was developed by Navy
Captain William "Deak" Parsons!!
We are told that the first atomic bomb
dropped on Japan was this UNPROVEN gun-assembly device which had
never been tested before Hiroshima. The scientists and the military
had such confidence in their new super weapon that they were certain
that it would work the first time—without time consuming tests.
Only in fairy tales does a highly complex device work perfectly the
first time!!
This weapon of mass destruction was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on
August 6, 1945.
The second bomb was a plutonium "implosive"
device
The plutonium was WRAPPED in explosives and the explosives IMPLODED
inward.
The core of the implosion bomb was a plutonium globe of a size just
below the critical mass. Made of two hemispheres, it was placed in
the center of a larger sphere of explosives, like the pit in a
peach. Several detonators, arranged symmetrically on the outside
surface and triggered simultaneously by an electric circuit, were to
set off the blast. The pressure was expected to go inward and squash
the core into a compressed critical mass.
The fission would start a fantastically
fast chain reaction, splitting the billions of plutonium nuclei and
thus releasing destructive energy never matched before.
"Fat man" was a
plutonium implosive bomb.
This weapon of mass destruction was
tested on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, in the southern desert of New
Mexico. This weapon of mass destruction was dropped on Nagasaki,
Japan, on August 9, 1945.
The center of the
bomb contained the plutonium and it was surrounded by high
explosives.
The explosives
"imploded" inward and triggered the chain reaction in the bomb.
"Fat man" was tested on July 16, 1945
Obviously the scientists and military did not have such confidence
in #2 because they decided that maybe they weren't perfect after all
and may have made a few mistakes.
The test was held in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945. It
was a spectacular success.
This second more powerful plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,
Japan, on August 9, 1945. Although both of these bombs used
explosives to trigger the chain reaction; they were radically
different in design and operation.
Trinity A-bomb test
is called the first atomic explosion in the world.
The world was told Trinity A-bomb test
was ammunition explosion!!
The atomic explosion was visible over 200 miles away but the
official line was that ammunition exploded. The commanding officer
of the Alamogordo air base had been provided weeks before with a
news release in which each word had been numbered for security.
Groves now ordered the release to be distributed at once. A copy of
it was rushed to the AP office in Albuquerque.
The wire service story that appeared in
a modest half-column on the front page of the Albuquerque Tribune
that afternoon carried the lead:
"An ammunition magazine, containing
high-explosives and pyrotechnics, exploded early today in a
remote area of the Alamogordo air base reservation, producing a
brilliant flash and blast which were reported to have been
observed as far away as Gallup, 235 miles northwest."
(Lamont, Day of Trinity, p.250).
First atomic explosion took place at
Port Chicago on July 17, 1944!!
The armed forces of
the U.S. were highly segregated in 1944. The only positions open for
blacks were in menial jobs.
In Port Chicago, they
loaded ammunition onto ships 7 days a week in three round-the-clock
8-hour shifts.
All the overseers were Simon Legree type officers while the back
breaking work was left to the black sailors.
Port Chicago was the
site of an atomic test explosion at 10:17 P.M. on July 17, 1944.
The scientists' confidence in Little Boy
seemed too good to be true.... and it was....
A nuclear device was tested by the Navy
at Port Chicago just north of San Francisco at 10:19 P.M. on July
17:
"Seismograph machines at the
University of California at Berkeley recorded two jolts with the
force of a small earthquake. They occurred about seven seconds
apart shortly before 10:19 P.M. A first, smaller explosion
(which appeared to some witnesses to occur on the pier itself)
was followed by a cataclysmic blast as the E. A. Bryan exploded
like one gigantic bomb, sending a column of fire and smoke and
debris climbing twelve thousand feet into the night sky, with
hundreds of exploding shells making it look like a huge
fireworks display”.
(Allen, The Port Chicago Mutiny,
p. 63).
A plane HAPPENED to be flying over the
area at that time:
"An Army Air Force plane HAPPENED to
be flying over at the time. The copilot described what he saw:
'We were flying the radio range from Oakland headed for
Sacramento. We were flying on the right side of the radio range
when this explosion occurred. I was flying at the time and
looking straight ahead and at the ground when the explosion
occurred. It seemed to me that there was a huge ring of fire
spread out to all sides, first covering approximately three
miles—I would estimate it to be about three miles—and then it
seemed to come straight up.
We were cruising at nine thousand
feet above sea level and there were pieces of metal that were
white and orange in color, hot, that went quite a ways above us.
They were quite large. I would say they, were as big as a house
or a garage. They went up above our altitude. The entire
explosion seemed to last about a minute. These pieces gradually
disintegrated and fell to the ground in small pieces.
The thing that struck me about it
was that it was so spontaneous, seemed to happen all at once,
didn't seem to be any small explosions except in the air. There
were pieces that flew off and exploded on all sides. A good many
stars and [it] looked like a fireworks display.'"
(Allen, The Port Chicago Mutiny,
p. 63).
320 sailors were killed instantly!!
The devastation to the town of Port Chicago was complete. Many were
blinded by the brilliant flash of light that accompanied the
explosion:
"Everyone on the pier and aboard the
two ships and the fire barge was killed instantly—320 men, 202
of whom were black enlisted men. (Only 51 bodies sufficiently
intact to be identified were ever recovered.) Another 390
military personnel and civilians were injured, including 233
black enlisted men. This single stunning disaster accounted for
more than 15 percent of all black naval casualties during the
war."
(Allen, The Port Chicago Mutiny,
p. 64).
"The E. A. Bryan was literally blown to bits—very little of its
wreckage was ever found that could be identified. The Quinalt
Victory was lifted clear out of the water by the blast, turned
around, and broken into pieces. The stern of the ship smashed
back into the water upside down some five hundred feet from
where it had originally been moored. The Coast Guard fire barge
was blown two hundred yards upriver and sunk. The locomotive and
boxcars disintegrated into hot fragments flying through the air.
The 1,200 foot-long wooden pier simply disappeared."
(Allen, The Port Chicago Mutiny,
p. 64).
Aerial view showing
destroyed pier and oil slick from Quinalt Victory.
Navy Captain William "Deak" Parsons visited
Port Chicago after the explosion!!
Soon after the explosion, "Deak" Parsons left Los Alamos and visited
Port Chicago to see how his invention worked:
"Parsons could not avoid the extra
responsibilities that went with being the senior naval officer
at Y, but many of the tasks that he took on were self-imposed.
In July 1944 he did not have to personally investigate the
explosion of two ammunition ships at Port Chicago northeast of
San Francisco. It was, however, something he felt he had to see
for himself. As the chief planner for the military delivery of
an explosion of unprecedented size, he recognized the Port
Chicago disaster as a chance to examine the effects of the
largest explosion ever to occur in the United States.
"On 20 July, accompanied by a Los
Alamos officer and a scientist, Parsons joined his
brother-in-law Capt. Jack Crenshaw (a member of the official
inquiry into cause) at Mare island, and they went together to
the Port Chicago site.
There left nothing to
chance....testing they observed what had happened when over 1,
500 tons of high explosives and additional tons of shells,
smokeless powder, and incendiary clusters exploded in a harbor:
the USS E. S. Bryan "fragmented and widely distributed"; the USS
Quinalt (waiting to be loaded) torn into large pieces; three
hundred and twenty men killed (of which two-thirds were
African-American seamen loading ammunition); nothing left of the
pier within four hundred feet of the detonation; a wood-frame
shop demolished; freight cars buckled.
Of the persons killed, all but five
were at the center of the explosion. All of the serious damage
took place within a one-mile radius."
(Christman, Target Hiroshima:
Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, p. 154).
Capt. William "Deak"
Parsons at his desk in Los Alamos
where he worked with
General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer to perfect the uranium bomb.
According to his biographer, he every component over and over!!
(Christman, p. 149).
Major reorganization at Los Alamos in
August 1944!!
Even though the nuclear explosion at Port Arthur was a spectacular
success, the scientists at Los Alamos soon discovered that there was
not enough uranium-235 available for many more bombs and plutonium
would not work in the gun-assembly device:
"Emilio Segré was perplexed. The
handsome Italian physicist, a colleague and great friend of
Enrico Fermi, was one of the discoverers of plutonium, and he
felt he knew the element and its bizarre properties as well as
anyone in the world. (Hard as glass under some conditions,
plutonium was as soft as plastic under others; even stranger, it
actually contracted when heated.)
But in midsummer of 1944, as he
conducted tests on a tiny sample from the prototype pile at
Clinton, Segré found something that seemed to stand his
knowledge on its head. His tests showed that the sample
contained unmistakable traces of a new plutonium isotope whose
atomic weight, at 240, was one unit greater than the Pu-239 with
which he and everyone else had been working.
The discovery was chilling. If Pu-240 emitted alpha particles on
its own, Pu-239 would be "contaminated" by an excess of
unattached neutrons. Because a gun-type bomb—a sort of
adaptation of a reliable standard model then in wide use in
other bombs—would be triggered by a mechanism that was
relatively slow-moving, the plutonium would detonate in advance
of the trigger, rendering the bomb a harmless fizzle.
Only in an implosion bomb—in which,
theoretically at least, the mechanics were so fast that the
explosion would take place before the contaminating isotope had
time to cause predetonation—could the crippling effects of
Pu-240 be overcome. Segré's next round of tests confirmed his
worst fear: Pu-240 was indeed an emitter of alpha particles. The
chances of using plutonium successfully in a gun-type weapon
were now virtually zero."
(Lawren, The General and the
Bomb, p. 171).
The OLD RELIABLE gun-assembly bomb was kept as a standby as work
proceeded on a new design called the implosion bomb:
"In the "August reorganization,"
Oppenheimer created two associate directors: Parsons for
ordnance, engineering, assembly, and delivery, and Enrico Fermi
for research and theoretical work. In addition to being named
associate director, Parsons remained in charge of the Ordnance
Division.
Robert
Oppenheimer and General Groves had a major reorganization at Los
Alamos
in August 1944!!
Parsons was allowed to go with his uranium bomb but work began
on a new design:
the implosive
plutonium bomb.
He retained direct responsibility
for the uranium gun, off-site production for the total
laboratory, final weapon design, and combat delivery
preparations for both bombs. However, parts of the old Ordnance
Division, which had outgrown itself, split into two newly
created divisions.
The Gadget Division for the applied
physics' of the implosion weapon went to Robert F. Bacher,
former head of the Experimental Physics Division and a forceful
manager. The Explosives Division for the explosive components of
the bomb, including the explosive lenses, went to Kistiakowsky."
(Christman, Target Hiroshima:
Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, p. 148).
Because of the shortage of uranium-235,
more copies of Parson's pet uranium bomb could not be made. The
gun-assembly device would not work with plutonium so that led to the
invention of the implosive bomb.
The implosive design was the work of Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky and
Seth Neddermeyer and featured lenses to direct the explosion inward
to initiate the chain reaction.
This device was tested on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico
and was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Parsons was
promoted to Commodore after the successful A-bomb test!!
Within a week of the test of his
gun-bomb, Captain Parsons was promoted to the rank of Commodore and
assigned to Los Alamos as Deputy Director under J. Robert
Oppenheimer.
After Hiroshima, Parsons was elevated to
the rank of Rear Admiral.
Parsons flew with his "baby" all the
way to Hiroshima!!
Even though he was a "NAVY" man, Parsons FLEW with his "baby" all
the way to Hiroshima. He had given birth to the MONSTER and was not
about to let it out of his sight until the mission was accomplished:
Bomb compartment on the Enola Gay where Parsons watched and prayed
over his "baby" on the long flight from Tinian to Hiroshima.
Commodore Parsons and Col. Paul Tibbets briefing crews for the
Hiroshima mission.
B-29 bombers of the 509th Composite Group on Tinian with an assembly
of military and Project Alberta technical personnel before the
bombing of Hiroshima.
Destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Just like Port Chicago
everything within one mile was destroyed .
"The area devastated at Hiroshima,
was 1.7 square miles, extending out a mile from ground zero. The
Japanese authorities estimated the casualties at 71,000 dead and
missing and 68,000 injured."
(Groves, Now It Can Be Told, p.
319).
Promoted to rear Admiral at the end of
World War II, Deak Parsons led the technical effort at Operation
Crossroads and set the direction of much of the navy's nuclear
policy. The Atomic Admiral died of a heart attack on Dec. 5, 1953.
Commodore Deak Parsons (right) was awarded the Silver Star by the
Army Strategic Air Forces while still wearing the shirt stained by
sweat and blackened by graphite from his making the final assembly
of the bomb during the Enola Gay's flight to Hiroshima. Brig. Gen.
John H. Davies presented the award. The Navy later awarded Parsons
the Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in the
development of the atomic bomb.
Vital Links
The Port Chicago Disaster http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/pc/nuclear.htm
(pags. The Last Wave from Port Chicago http://www.portchicago.org/
(pags.80-)
References Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Bomb. Alfred A.
Knopf, New York 1995. Allen, Robert L. The Port Chicago Mutiny: The
Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial In U.S. Naval History. Warner
Books, New York, 1989. Christman, Al. Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons
and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, Naval Institute Press,
Annapolis, Maryland, 1998. Groves, Leslie R. Now It Can Be Told: The
Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1962.
Groueff, Stephane. Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making
of the Atomic Bomb. Little, Brown & Co., New York, 1967. Lawren,
William. The General and the Bomb. A Biography of General Leslie R.
Groves. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1988. Lamont, Lansing, Day of
Trinity. Atheneum, New York, 1965. Norris, Robert S. Racing for the
Bomb. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, Vermont, 2002. Rodes,
Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York,
1986. Copyright © 2004 by Leon Kilkenny
Possibilities of a Super Bomb in 1944!!
Inspecting the Hanford Washington plutonium production plant at the
time of the Manhattan Project. From left to right: James B. Conant,
Vannevar Bush, General Leslie Groves and Col. Franklin Matthias
Harvard President James B. Conant with Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, who visited Harvard in 1943.
"Sanitized" copy of a letter from James B. Conant to Vannevar Bush
about the near possibility of a Super bomb in 1944!!
References
Conant, James Bryant. 1943. A History of the Development of the
Atomic Bomb. Unpublished MS. OSRD M1393, S1, Bush-Conant Folder,
National Archives of the U.S. Conant, James B. My Several Lives:
Memoirs of a Social Inventor. Harper & Row, New York, 1970.
Hershberg James, James B. Conant. Harvard to Hiroshima and the
Making of the Nuclear Age. Alfred A. Knoph, New York, 1993.
Project Chariot and the Cold War: Additional Resources for Study
Introduction to sources
The premier source of information about Project Chariot is a book
written by Dan O'Neill entitled, The Firecracker Boys, New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1994. [A 2nd edition is now available] Various U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission reports on Project Chariot can also be
found in major libraries with large government holdings. In
addition, there are a fair number of books, magazine and journal
articles with important data pertaining to Project Chariot. Your
local reference librarian should be of considerable assistance in
tracing down these particular sources.
A second major resource is the Oral History collection of the
University of Alaska-Fairbanks Rasmuson Library. This material
includes extensive tape recordings of interviews by Dan O'Neill with
many of the participants of Project Chariot.[ Further information
regarding access to this collection is provided below under 'Sources
from the World Wide Web'].
As for finding materials on the Internet, one place to begin is by
exploring the U.S. Government's declassified files on Project
Chariot. This data can be found in several locations:
-
One site is the Department of
Energy's Office of Human Radiation Experiments Information
Management System [HREX]. First, go to the site's home page
which is: http://www.ohre.doe.gov/ -Then click on: Human
Radiation Experiments Information Management System [HREX].
At this point, you have two choices.
Unless you are familiar with
computer data base management, choose the Standard category
under Search Mode. If you are familiar with such matters [or
wish to broaden your horizons] click on Expert Mode. Then
click on Start HREX. You are now ready to begin your search.
Under How To Search, type: Project Chariot and then click on
Search For.
You are now presented with a
series of documents from the Department of Energy pertaining
to Project Chariot. Much of the data is of limited value.
However, the viewer is provided with significant insights
into governmental and scientific management thinking of the
time.
-
Another Department of Energy www
site offers an additional access to declassified files.
First, go to the Department site at: http://www.ohre.doe.gov/
-Then select OpenNet which takes you to the Department of
Energy's declassified files. Once in OpenNet, request
"Project Chariot" in the search form.
At that point, you will be told
that there are a substantial number of documents referring
in one way or another to Project Chariot. Select a document
that looks interesting and determine how it can be obtained.
[Unfortunately, the complete documents are not presently
available 'online.'] After viewing what is available, you
can request a summary Report Query. At this point, you have
just completed the first step in obtaining government
documents on Project Chariot on the World Wide Web.
We at Arctic Circle are also obtaining various government
records, documents, letters, academic articles, and
resolutions passed by Inupiat villages pertaining to Project
Chariot. They will be listed below as they become available.
Finally, if you find other sources unknown Arctic Circle,
please inform us and we will immediately bring them to the
attention of other viewers.
Electronic Sources from the World Wide Web: Alaska's Trailblazers
for Academic Freedom AFT -On Campus
Nuclear Landscaping. Al Teich -Technology & the Future [2002]
The Environmental Legacy of the Cold War. An address by U.S. Senator
Frank H. Murkowski at the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy
Committee Workshop on Arctic Contamination, Anchorage, Alaska, May
2, 1993.
Project Chariot: Nuclear Legacy of Cape Thompson. A presentation by
Douglas L. Vandegraft at the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy
Committee Workshop on Arctic Contamination, Anchorage, Alaska, May
6, 1993.
Interview with Edward Teller. [Reflections by Dr. Teller on his
life, work, and legacy].
Atomic Energy Commission Offenses Against the Peace and Security of
the Inupiat of Point Hope.A Press Release by the Native Village of
Point Hope, October 17, 1992.
Administration of Radioactive Substances to Human Subjects. A
declassified document from the Atomic Energy Commission, dated
January 8, 1947. {76k}
Recorded interviews with participants involved in Project Chariot
can be found in the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Rasmuson
Library, Oral History Collection. Information on how patrons can
borrow copies of these recordings is available from the Oral History
Office, Alaska and Polar Regions Department of the Rasmuson Library.
Printed Library Sources
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Committee on
Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare. "Science and Human
Welfare: The AAAS Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human
Welfare states the issues and calls for action,'' Science (8 July
1960), pp. 68-73. Broad, William J. Teller's War: The Top Secret War
Behind the StarWars Deception. Simon & Schuster, 1992, Brooks, Paul,
The Pursuit of Wilderness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1971.
Brooks, Paul, and Joseph Foote. (19 April 1962) ''The Disturbing
Story of Project Chariot," Harper's p. 60. Foote, Don Charles
Project Chariot and the Eskimo People of Point Hope Alaska:
September 1959 to May 1960. Prepared for the USAEC, 1960. Magraw,
Katherine. 1988. 'Teller and the 'Clean Bomb' Episode." The Bulletin
of the Atomic Seientists (May 1988), pp. 32 37. Morgan, Lael. Art
and Eskimo Power: The Life and Times of Alaskan Howard Rock.
Epicenter Press, 1988. O'Neill, Dan. The Firecracker Boys. St
Martin's Press, 1994. O'Neill, Dan, [comp] Project Chariot: A
Collection of Oral Histories. 2 vols. Alaska Humanities Forum, 1989.
O'Neill, Dan. "Project Chariot: How Alaska Escaped Nuclear
Excavation." The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 45 (December
1989): pp. 28-37, 1989. Pruitt, William O., Jr. "Radioactive
Contamination," Naturalist (Spring 1963) pp. 20 26. Rainey, Froelich
G. The Whale Hunters of Tigara. American Museum of Natural History,
1947. Teller, Edward. 'We're Going to Work Miracles.'' Popular
Mechanics ( March 1960). Teller, Edward, and Albert L. Latter. Our
Nuclear Future . . . Facts Dangers and Opportunities. Criterion,
1958. Teller, Edward, with Allen Brown. The Legacy of Hiroshima.
Doubleday, 1 962. Teller, Edward, and Wilson K. Talley, Gary H.
Higgins, and Gerald W. Johnson. The Constructive Uses of Nuclear
Explosives. McGraw-Hill, I968. Vanstone, James W. Point Hope: An
Eskimo Village in Transition. University of Washington Press, 1962.
Wassemman, Harvey, and Norman Solomon. Killing Our Oun. The Disaster
of America's Experience With Atomic Radiation. Delacorte Press,
1982. Weaver, Lynn E., ed. Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosives.
University of Arizona Press, 1970. Wilimovsky, Norman J., and John
N. Wolfe, eds. The Environment of the Cape Thompson Region Alaska.
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. 1966.
Additional References
Project Chariot
The Nuclear Legacy of Cape Thompson, Alaska
by Norman Chance
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/SEEJ/chariotseej.html
"In 1957, the U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission [AEC] established the 'Plowshare Program' to
"investigate and develop peaceful uses for nuclear
explosives." In early 1958, the AEC selected a site at the
mouth of the Ogotoruk Creek near Cape Thompson,
approximately 30 miles southeast of the Inupiat Eskimo
village of Point Hope.
Shortly thereafter, they
developed plans for an experimental harbor excavation to be
called Project Chariot. Late in 1962, after extensive
scientific studies, the AEC announced that it "would defer
further consideration of the proposed Chariot experiment,"
due in part to public criticism....
Douglas L. Vandegraft
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Part One of this case study traces the
process of events from the initial design of Project Chariot to its
cancellation in 1962.
Part Two addresses recent developments stemming from a 1990s
investigation of contaminated radioactive soil that had been left at
the site thirty years previously.
Also included is a Postscript analyzing
allegations that without their knowledge, the Inupiat and other
Alaskan Natives were injected with radioactive iodine/131 in the
1950s as part of a U.S. military research project to determine
whether soldiers "could be better conditioned to fight in cold
conditions."
Part One
[There was] a general atmosphere
and attitude that the American people could not be trusted
with the uncertainties, and therefore the information was
withheld from them. I think there was concern that the
American people, given the facts, would not make the right
risk-benefit judgments.
Peter Libassi,
Chairman, Interagency Task
Force on the Health Effects of Ionizing Radiation
We should be on our guard not to
overestimate science and scientific methods when it is a
question of human problems, and we should not assume that
experts are the only ones who have the right to express
themselves on questions affecting the organization of
society.
Albert Einstein,
Scientist
Introduction
In recent decades, increasing numbers of people have expressed
concern about threats to the natural environment of the Arctic. In
the 1970s, sharp criticism followed the above ground nuclear bomb
tests by the People's Republic of China; tests which resulted in an
eight-fold increase in radioactive pollution of Alaskan lichens,
affecting the caribou that ate them; and a year later, the inland
Inupiat Eskimo subsistence hunters.
In the 1980s, international research was initiated to study the
growing problem of Arctic haze, a form of atmospheric pollution that
absorbs light from the sun and thereby alters the temperature of
Arctic air, a significant determinant of weather conditions
throughout the globe. In the spring of 1989, the worst oil spill in
American history occurred in Alaska's Prince William Sound when the
tanker Exxon Valdez went aground spilling more that 10 million
gallons of North Shore crude oil in the sea and surrounding
shoreline.
In the 1990s, even greater concern is being expressed over the
production of human made chemicals that have affected the Arctic's
atmospheric ozone layer, which is so vital to protecting organisms
from lethal violet rays. Such threats to the Arctic environment
carry implications not only for those living in the North, but for
peoples throughout the globe.
In Arctic Circle's presentation on 'northern development and the
global economy,' I addressed some of the key factors promoting this
environmental degradation -concluding with the proposition that
economic growth cannot indefinitely be sustained on a finite planet.
Hence, the wisest course of action would be to distinguish between
growth and development in which the latter represents an improvement
in the quality of life without necessarily increasing the quantity
of resources consumed.
However, at that time, I said little about the environmental
injustice inflicted on northern Native peoples stemming the
degradation to their homelands in the wake of recent development
practices. Nor did I actively discuss the role played by governments
in this degradation. This omission is addressed in the following
case study. Indeed, the story of Project Chariot provides an
immensely powerful illustration of how governments, caught up in the
social and political events of the time, can act in ways that are
highly detrimental to the Arctic and its peoples. It is also a
portrayal of resistance, courage, and eventual success.
Perhaps most important is the implicit
question it poses: To what extent are the underlying political
motivations and social forces present at that time still with us
today?
The Problem - Part I
One afternoon in early August of 1958, while standing on the bluff
overlooking the Beaufort Sea, an Inupiat Eskimo from Kaktovik,
Alaska watched as an umiaq with two men in it pointed their skin
boat toward the village from the northwest. Propelled by a large
outboard motor, it slowly made its way past the lagoon, eventually
reaching the shoreline directly in front of the small settlement.
A tall, well-built man then leapt from
the bow and, with anchor in hand, deftly drove its point firmly into
the sand. Joined by the other Inupiaq, both men began unloading food
and supplies on to the beach. Soon, the visitors were surrounded by
excited villagers of all ages, many of whom greeted them with
considerable enthusiasm. Stories had been circulating f or some time
that two people from Point Hope were planning to make the long
journey north to Barrow and then 300 miles along the Beaufort Sea to
Kaktovik. One of these expected voyagers was Dan Lisburne, a
well-known leader from Point Hope. Now, he and his partner had
finally arrived.
Situated at the end of a long spit of land projecting out into the
Chukchi Sea 125 miles above the Arctic Circle, Point Hope was the
farthest west from Kaktovik of any Inupiat settlement on the North
Slope. It also had a well-deserved reputation as a close-knit
community with strong leadership and local spirit. Lisburne had
taken the trip partly for enjoyment; but more significantly, he
wanted to share his experiences and learn those of other villagers
living along the Arctic coast.
One issue discussed with the Kaktovik
Inupiat concerned problems the latter were facing following the
forced relocations of their village by the Air Force. Of greater
long range concern was the withdrawal of 4500 acres of land for a
military reserve -an area encompassing the entire surface of Barter
Island including the village and cemetery. As one local villager
described the event later on: "No one knew what this was about, or
why.
We were just told to move.
"If I had known English then, as I
do now, I would have fought to keep the village. We got nothing
for having to move. It was not fair of them to do this."
While in Kaktovik, Dan Lisburne shared a
similar apprehension about the possibility of the government taking
over land south of Point Hope. This concern had arisen two months
earlier, after several Inupiat returned home from a hunting trip to
Ogotoruk Creek, 30 miles southeast of the village.
Lisburne indicated that the Ogotoruk
Creek valley was an important hunting ground for Point Hope people,
providing them with large numbers of caribou. While in the area, the
Inupiat had come across government scientists undertaking a local
survey. When asked what they were doing, the surveyors informed the
hunters they were engaged in geologic research for the U.S. Atomic
Energy Commission [AEC].
Not knowing why scientists from the AEC were interested in Ogotoruk
Creek, the Point Hope residents were curious. This curiosity
eventually turned to anxiety as rumors began spreading that Ogotoruk
Creek had been chosen by the AEC as the site for the detonation of a
large nuclear bomb. Although precise information was unavailable,
the rumors appeared to be true.
The Atomic Energy Commission was indeed
actively exploring the detonation of a massive atomic device. The
blast, expected to be 100 times more powerful than the one at
Hiroshima, was tentatively scheduled to take place in 1962. Ground
Zero was Ogotoruk Creek, 31.5 miles southeast of the Inupiat village
of Point Hope.
Partly in response to broad popular opposition to the hazards of
above ground testing of atomic weapons by both the U.S. and the
USSR, the AEC had decided it could improve its public image by
establishing a new program called `Operation Plowshare' -drawing on
the biblical narrative in which swords were beaten into plowshares.
From this "peaceful use of the atom" suggested the AEC, would come
"a new age of atomic progress." The Program was formally inaugurated
on June 19, 1957. Still, no specific plan had as yet emerged.
Then, in October of that year, following Russia's space launch of
Sputnik I, the American scientific community came under considerable
pressure to achieve a major technological accomplishment of its own.
At the University of California's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,
scientists responded by recommending to the AEC that earth
excavation offered the "highest probability of early beneficial
success" in the Plowshare Program.
Teller en route to
the Project Chariot site
[Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory photo]
Actively supporting the proposal, Dr.
Edward Teller, ‘father of the hydrogen bomb’ and director of the
Radiation Laboratory, suggested that the AEC detonate a 2.4 megaton
atomic device on t he northwest coast of Alaska in the region of
Cape Thompson. Such an explosion would create a deep water hole to
be used as a harbor for the eventual shipment of coal, oil, and
other non-renewable resources thought to exist along this part of
the coast. After exploring several other possibilities, the AEC
accepted Teller’s proposal and on June 9th, 1958 publically gave it
a name - ‘Project Chariot.’
Four days previously, unknown to the
people of Point Hope and other nearby Inupiat villages, Lewis Straus
s, then chairman of the AEC, had requested the withdrawal from the
public domain of 1600 square miles of land and water in the area of
Cape Thompson - including land villagers had earlier sought under
the Alaska Native Allotment Act.
That summer, while scientists were surveying the area surrounding
Cape Thompson, nuclear physicist Teller and others connected with
the AEC and California’s
 Lawrence
Radiation Laboratory made speeches in Alaskan cities pointing out
the financial benefits the state would receive from the
multi-million dollar investment of federal funds. Further assuring
his audiences, Teller told them that “The blast will not be
performed until it can be economically justified. “
Gaining support of the press, Teller and his associates were less
successful in getting a positive endorsement by the state’s
financial leaders. Some were doubtful of the commercial viability of
mineral deposits thought to be available along the coast. Others
rejected the idea that a harbor was needed to ship out whatever
minerals were found. Still other dissenters associated with the
science faculty of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, concerned
citizens, environmentalists, and a few government officials, were
more vocal in their criticism of the blast itself and its
implications for the safety of the people and wildlife of the
region.
But Dan Lisburne and other Inupiat
leaders from Point Hope, Noatak and Kivalina, the villages closest
to the proposed blast, were not directly informed and thus remained
largely ignorant about the plan. It wasn’t until the spring of 1959,
after watching a local movie, that Point Hope residents were called
to an impromptu meeting by a visiting missionary from Kotzebue and
told the rumor about the blast was true.
Although AEC officials excluded Inupiat villagers from early
discussions about Project Chariot, they did continue to promote it
before Alaska’s financial community and state legislature - knowing
their support was essential to its successful implementation. After
holding numerous discussions with public officials and private
industrial leaders, the Commission eventually succeeded in gaining
approval from the state as well as Fairbanks and other city Chambers
of Commerce.
Plans for the detonation progressed.
Acknowledging the skepticism of those
questioning the Project’s accruing any commercial benefit, the AEC
also shifted the basis of its argument for the detonation away from
possible economic advantages toward the experimental - calling it a
massive test in “geographical engineering."
As John A. McCone, the AEC's newly
appointed chairman testified before the U.S. Congress Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy,
"We are seeking an alternative to
the harbor in Alaska because, as I said to the committee once
before , we couldn't find a customer for the harbor."
Under the revised plan, presented in
June of 1959, the Project's Environmental Studies Program director
stated that an effort would be made,
"...to determine the effects of a
nuclear explosion on the environment -its rock substrata, soils,
atmosphere, and biota, including man."
 In
the fall, Don Charles Foote, a young geographer working under
contract to the Environmental Studies Program of the AEC, was asked
by Commission staff to explain what he knew of Project Cha riot to
the Point Hope village council.
But it was not until the spring of 1960 that official
representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission came to the village
to explain the details of the proposed blast.
Foote described what happened in his
follow-up report to the AEC:
To the detriment of the Commission
and Project Chariot, the officials who spoke in March, 1960,
made several statements which could not be substantiated in
fact.
Among other things the Point Hope
people were told:
-
that the fish in and around
the Pacific Proving Grounds were not made radioactive by
nuclear weapons tests and [there would not be]... any
danger to anyone if the fish were utilized
-
that the effects of nuclear
weapons testing never injured any people, anywhere
-
that once the severely
exposed Japanese people recovered from radiation
sickness... there were no side effects
-
that the residents of Point
Hope would not feel any seismic shock at all from
Project Chariot
-
that copies of the
Environmental Program studies would be made immediately
available to the Point Hope council upon the return of
the AEC officials to California
Foote's report went on to describe the
AEC delegation's evaluation of how Project Chariot would affect the
lives of the people of Point Hope. They were told that although
there was no need to restrict the area where the men did their
hunting, and that the detonation would occur at a time outside the
normal caribou hunting cycle, it would be essential that hunters and
dogs remain clear of "any remotely dangerous area;" and that it
would be days, weeks, or months before hunters could pass through
Ogotoruk Creek.
Finally, the residents were informed that, although the AEC would
compensate them for damage to structures, there was little
possibility, short of long and costly law suits, that awards could
be made for personal or property damages. Still, a statement was
made that some direct compensation would be forthcoming to the
villagers prior to the explosion.
Not surprisingly, assurances that Chariot would not be a hazard to
the subsistence way of life of the Point Hope Inupiat were sharply
rejected by the village council. Immediately following the close of
the meeting, the council voted unanimously to oppose detonation of
the bomb.
As Foote summarized the results of the meeting in his
report of the event:
The net result of the first official presentation of Project Chariot
to the people of Point Hope was to produce a profound lack of
confidence in the sincerity of the AEC.
Shortly thereafter, protests became more widespread. William Pruitt
and other scientists at the University of Alaska, along with those
working within the AEC itself, pointed out that the tundra's "food
chain" was peculiarly susceptible to radioactive fall out from
recent atomic testing. Alaska's caribou, for example, were found to
contain approximately seven times as much strontium 90 as the meat
of domestic cattle in the southern part of the United States. This
was because caribou fed on lichens, rootless plants deriving their
nutriment from the dust in the air as it was carried down by rain
and snow, thus directly absorbing the radioactive fallout before it
became diluted in the soil.
Since the Inupiat ate the caribou, they already had a considerably
greater intake of strontium 90 than any other Americans. Further
above ground testing would only add to the already existing danger.
The inland Inupiat of Anaktuvuk Pass, several hundred miles
northeast of Cape Thompson, also spoke out sharply against
additional testing. Located high in the Brooks Range, they relied
more heavily on the caribou for their subsistence than an y other
Arctic villagers.
In a plea to the outside world, Simon Paneak, head of the village council, noted that the radiation
levels,
"...keep getting higher and higher,
and we just don't know what to do."
Finally, on March 3rd, 1961, the Point
Hope village health council wrote to President John Kennedy opposing
the proposed chain explosion stating that such a detonation would
be:
...too close to our hunting and
fishing areas. We read about the cumulative and retained isotope
burden in man that must be considered. We also know about
strontium 90, how it might harm people if too much of it gets
into our body... We are deeply concerned about the health of our
people now and for the future that is coming.
The Inupiat of Point Hope and other
North Alaskan villages all feared that the successful detonation of
a large nuclear "device" at Cape Thompson would cause serious health
hazards, immediately making the region and their way of life
untenable.
Within a year, Project Chariot was set
aside by the AEC, due in large part to the rising chorus of protest
mounted against the project by Alaska's northern Natives and many
other organizations across the United States and throughout the
world.
Part Two
...One of the [Project Chariot]
studies performed was called the "tracer experiment" in
which radioactive materials from a Nevada test site were
applied to small plots in the Ogotoruk Creek basin. These
plots were then spinkled with water and the resulting runoff
was analyzed to determine the dispersion of the radioactive
material throughout the area. At the conclusion of the
experiment, the soil at the test plots was dug up and buried
in a single mound near the junction of Snowbank and Ogotoruk
Creeks.
The site was used by the Department of the Navy as a
logistical support base for the Naval Arctic Research
Laboratory from 1965 to 1970. In 1980, the area became part
of the Chukchi Sea Unit of the Alaska Maritime National
Wildlife Refuge and is now known as the Cape Thompson
Subunit.
In August of 1992, Dan O'Neill, a University of
Alaska-Fairbanks researcher, obtained recently declassified
documents and letters describing the burial of soil
contaminated with radioactive materials. Following this
public disclosure, the former AEC, now the Department of
Energy, assumed responsibility for the cleanup of this
contaminated soil. The process was completed in 1994.
Douglas L. Vandegraft
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Part Two of this case study addresses
the results of a 1990s investigation of contaminated radioactive
soil left at the Chariot site thirty years previously. The
'postscript' describes a serious violation of medical ethics
occurring in the late 1950s, when the Inupiat and other Alaskan
Natives were injected with radioactive Iodine 131 without their
knowledge of the possible risks involved.
This experiment was undertaken as part
of a U.S. military research project to determine whether soldiers
"could be better conditioned to fight in cold conditions."
We, the Inupiat of Point Hope, have the ability to face the arrogant
policies of the former Atomic Energy Commission and its Project
Chariot. We will not be willing victims for the genocidal and
inhuman policies of the Nuclear Energy Commission.
Press Release
Village of Point Hope
Alaska, October 17, 1992
By now most are aware of Project Chariot, a project dating from
the 1950s that envisioned the use of nuclear detonations to
build a harbor at Cape Thompson, Alaska. This was part of the
old Plowshare or "Atoms for Peace" program. Although the nuclear
detonations were never carried out, 26 millicuries of
radioactive tracers left over from ecological experiments were
deposed of at the site. When news of these disposed radioactive
tracers broke, the headlines told of a nuclear waste "dump." The
worst fea rs of the local people living near Cape Thompson were
awakened....
The Project Chariot episode, while apparently not a serious
human or environmental threat, is a case study that we can learn
from: It demonstrates the need to be completely truthful with
the public. It provides a preview of the public reaction we may
face as new sources of Arctic contamination are uncovered."
U.S. Senator Frank H. Murkowski
speaking at the Workshop on
Arctic Contamination, Anchorage, Alaska, May 3, 1993.
The Legacy of Project Chariot
After the Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] was dissuaded from
exploding their thermonuclear bombs at Ogotoruk Valley in 1962, AEC
scientists decided to bring fresh radioactive fallout to Alaska
drawn from an earlier thermonuclear explosion at the large Nevada
test site. In August of 1962 approximately 26 milliCuries (mCi) of
isotopes and mixed fission products were transported to the Chariot
location and buried.
As later reported by Douglas Vandegraft
(1993) of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, this included a maximum
of: 10 mCi of mixed fission products, 6 mCi of Cesium 137, 5 mCi of
Iodine 131, and 5 mCi of Strontium 185. All together, this
represented 17.5 pounds of sediment, sand, and dust along with small
"segregated quantities" of Iodine 131, Strontium 85, and Cesium
137, mixed with sand.
The experiment was basically designed to determine "the dispersal,
in an hydrologic environment, of radioactive products from a buried
nuclear explosive." In so doing, it would answer a question the AEC
had earlier posed to the United States Geological Survey (USGS):
Would the bombs contaminate local drinking water? The response of
the USGS was that "under some situations, effects...could be
substantial and a serious handicap to Man's activities." After these
amounts of radioactive fallout were placed in measured plots of
ground at Ogotoruk Valley, the ground was watered to simulate
rainfall.
In his report on the Project Chariot, Douglas Vandegraft (1993)
stated that,
"The scientists had used Iodine 131,
Strontium 85, and Cesium 137 which were not permitted according
to the USGS license, and the quantities of radioactive isotopes
buried in the mound were larger than permitted -perhaps as much
as 1,000 times more strontium and cesium as allowed by federal
regulations. Also, the BLM permit to the AEC did not allow the
use of radioactive materials."
When questioned about this, Arthur
Baker, acting Director of the USGS in Washington, D.C., responded
that the radioactive material had been dispersed to harmless
background levels, and,
"the extreme cold coupled with the
permafrost in the area causes disturbed ground to freeze solid
early in the winter and to remain frozen...It is our opinion
that...this material does not constitute a hazard."
In 1992, Dan O'Neill, a researcher at
the University of Alaska, learned about this burial from recently
declassified Department of Energy documents. Shortly thereafter, the
burial mound was excavated. At the two foot level, radiation
counters detected low levels of radiation. At this point, Inupiat
leaders from Point Hope and the North Slope Borough demanded
immediate action to remove radioactive materials from the site.
Native residents of Point Hope were particularly angry - in part
because that village had experienced a high rate of cancer related
deaths in the past 30 years. Further studies undertaken by the
federal and state governments concluded that no hazard existed.
However, if the Natives of Arctic Alaska insisted, all radioactive
material would be removed.
Jessie Kaleak, mayor of the North Slope Borough, responded:
"We Alaskans believe this action is
the very least the government can do. [However] The plan doesn't
address health issues and the monitoring of our oceans and land
and marine animals. That is something we pushed for and we are
not going to give up on it."
Shortly thereafter, at a considerable
expense, all the radioactive components were removed from the buried
site. The health and monitoring of oceans, land, and marine animals
issues raised by Mayor Kaleak have yet to be thoroughly addressed.
Why no tsunami
warning?
Friday, January 07, 2005
from
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/01/why-no-tsunami-warning.html
From
an article debunking the crazy
tsunami theories found on the internet:
"The Free Internet Press, which
claims to offer 'uncensored news for real people', has an
article saying the US military and the US State Department
received advanced warning of the tsunami, but did little to warn
Asian countries.
America's Navy base on the Indian Ocean jungle atoll of Diego
Garcia was notified and escaped unscathed, it said, asking 'why
were fishermen in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand not provided
with the same warnings?'.
'Why did the US State Department remain mum on the existence of
an impending catastrophe?,' author Michel Chossudovsky pondered.
'Probably because fishermen in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand
don't have multimillion dollar communications equipment handy,'
one respondent said as readers posted angry replies."
Ah, but of course they do. Fishermen
have cell phones, which gives them access to multimillion dollar
communications networks.
The cellphone penetration throughout the
whole area of the disaster was such that if SMS messaging had been
used to give a warning, tens of thousands of lives might have been
spared. The U. S. had enough time to notify its naval base on Diego
Garcia.
Why did it not make even the slightest
attempt to notify anyone else? Even a partly successful attempt
would have saved many lives, particularly in coastal cities and
resorts.
The advantages of the tsunami to the
United States:
-
it further weakens the 'Asian
tigers', countries whose success was an embarrassment to the
American rapacious model of world development;
-
it provides lots of
opportunities for friends of the Bush Administration to
enrich themselves in lucrative 'emergency' supply contracts
for the rescue mission;
-
it gives American ships an
excuse to be in places they would not otherwise have an
excuse to be, and plenty of opportunity to unload whatever
cargo they might later find useful around the Indian Ocean;
-
it provides the chance for an
ostentatious show of American goodwill which can be used in
the propaganda campaign to restore the image of the United
States in the world.
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