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As Obama signs nuclear treaty, faith and peace groups call for next steps

Cara Bautista — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:30:00 -0400

Oakland, CA – On the one year anniversary of President Obama’s speech from Prague in which he called for a “world without nuclear weapons,” and as he signs the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a broad coalition of more than 100 faith, peace, and arms control groups from across the country is sending a letter to the president urging him to plan the next step to advance progress toward disarmament.

The letter to the president is signed by a number of organizations from states directly affected by a history of nuclear weapons production. Nuclear disarmament is a top priority for the New Mexico Conference of Churches, which serves over 800,000 Protestants and Roman Catholics across the state.

“After 65 years of living in the shadow of nuclear weapons and suffering from its fallout, a growing number of the people in New Mexico are determined to retire the bomb,” said Reverend Holly Beaumont, Legislative Advocate for the New Mexico Conference of Churches. “In addition to posing a huge threat to human life, nuclear weapons are a Cold War relic and strategically useless.”

As part of his speech from Prague, President Obama stated that negotiating a new nuclear weapons reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia “will set the stage for further cuts, and we will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.” The coalition's letter asks that the president use the occasion of the April Global Nuclear Security Summit being attended by more than 40 heads of state to announce a new summit on nuclear disarmament in 2011.

“As President Obama signs the New START treaty with Russia this week to cut back the number of nuclear weapons in the world, it's critical that he use this opportunity to build momentum towards a nuclear weapons free world,” said Cara Bautista, coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. “Just as Obama initiated the first ever Global Nuclear Security Summit to address nuclear security, he can take the next step by announcing the U.S. will convene a new international summit to start real discussions about how to reach the ultimate goal of zero nuclear weapons.”

With the May Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference approaching, the international community is looking for signs of concrete progress toward nuclear disarmament by the nuclear weapons states.

Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), says her group "has a long history of support for nuclear disarmament." The LCWR is a national organization whose membership includes leaders of many U.S. congregations of women religious. "We were very encouraged by the president's declaration of the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Now those words must be translated into action which will set our country, and the world, on a path that moves from a policy of deterrence to a policy of elimination."

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The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is a consortium of more than 100 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nuclearweaponsfree.org. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the New Mexico Conference of Churches are coalition partners with the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. For more information, visit www.lcwr.org and www.nmchurches.org respectively.

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179 Organizations Press Obama on the Need for a Transformational Nuclear Posture Review

Cara Bautista — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:30:03 -0400

OAKLAND, CA – As President Obama prepares his Nuclear Posture Review, pressure to water down his vision of American leadership to reduce the threat from nuclear weapons builds within his administration. 179 national, regional, and local organizations from across the country are responding with a letter to the president asking him to continue his leadership on nuclear weapons issues. The letter outlines how the Nuclear Posture Review can best achieve the vision the president laid out in his speech in Prague.

The divisions within the Obama administration over the direction of the Nuclear Posture Review have been coming to the fore in the last several months. In the president’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama stated that the U.S. “will complete a Nuclear Posture Review that opens the door to deeper cuts and reduces the role of nuclear weapons.” However, at an Air Force Association conference in September, Secretary of Defense Gates spoke in favor of modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, including supporting new warhead designs.

The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, a coalition of more than 100 organizations that strongly supports President Obama’s vision of "the peace and security of a world free of nuclear weapons," is spearheading this effort. The letter’s 179 signatories represent 31 states, a wide variety of arms control, peace, security, religious, and environmental organizations, and hundreds of thousands of citizens.

In the letter, organizations state that in order for the review to further progress toward a nuclear weapons free world, it must reflect the reality that:

the United States does not need and shall not pursue new nuclear warheads;

maintaining a large, ready-to-launch nuclear arsenal hurts U.S. security interests overall by encouraging similar Russian behavior, and;

only substantial reductions in those arsenals, U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and a commitment to a world without nuclear weapons can attract the international support necessary to stop more countries from getting the bomb and terrorists from using one.

“President Obama has a unique opportunity to reject outdated Cold War thinking and officially set the U.S. on a path toward the elimination of nuclear weapons through his administration’s Nuclear Posture Review,” said Cara Bautista, coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. “Our letter demonstrates that there is broad-based support for a dramatic shift in U.S. nuclear weapons policy, embodied in a Nuclear Posture Review that reduces the role of nuclear weapons in our security strategy.”

A copy of the letter can be downloaded here.

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The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is a consortium of more than 100 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nuclearweaponsfree.org.

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Arms Control Advocates, Faith Groups Applaud Obama’s Plan for Achieving a Nuclear Weapons Free World

Cara Bautista — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:03:51 -0400

Oakland, CA – In a major speech made from Prague today, President Obama placed a commitment by the US to achieve a “world without nuclear weapons” at the center of US nuclear policy, outlining the need for arms control agreements and a series of steps to address the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

“With the Cold War long over, President Obama’s commitment to a nuclear weapons free world signals a shift to a 21st century security strategy that addresses the fact that nuclear weapons are a liability and pose an increasing security risk in today’s world,” said Cara Bautista, Coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. “Reducing the role of nuclear weapons in our own security strategy gives us the authority to ask other countries to do the same as we work to strengthen existing international arms control treaties and negotiate new ones.”

The elimination of nuclear weapons and the need for concrete steps forward has been endorsed in the last two years by a growing lists of foreign policy elite including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former National Security Advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski, Sandy Berger, and Richard McFarlane, former Senators Sam Nunn and Chuck Hagel and former Defense Secretary William Perry.

“The faith community in New Hampshire and the US applauds the new spirit of a world without nuclear weapons,” said David Lamarre-Vincent, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches. “Especially during these holy days of Easter and Passover, we celebrate the hope-filled work for a nuclear weapons free life rather than living with the unthinkable evil of a nuclear attack.”

President Obama said that his administration would “aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.” Over 140 nations have ratified the CTBT. The United States has signed but not ratified the treaty, observing a moratorium on nuclear testing since 1992.

“Interreligious leaders strongly support ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as a down payment on a new era of US leadership to lock down nuclear weapons, build down our stockpiles and end a world held hostage to nuclear weapons development and proliferation,” said Lamarre-Vincent. “Faith leaders agree that US leadership on economic development and diplomacy trumps trillions of dollars spent on weapons that we dare never use.”

Congress is likely to present a hurdle for President Obama’s arms control agenda. Achieving a follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and any newly negotiated treaty to verifiably end the production of fissile materials would require ratification by two-thirds of the US Senate or 67 votes. Adequate funding for programs to address the threat of nuclear terrorism by securing loose nuclear material, such as the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, would also have to be approved by Congress.

“The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is working to build support in Congress for steps toward a nuclear weapons free world,” said Bautista. “Today the president said that ‘the voices for peace and progress must be raised together’ for this call to eliminate nuclear weapons, and our coalition of more than 100 organizations nationwide stands ready to mobilize support to help achieve this shared goal. Congress should support reducing our stockpile to 1,000 or fewer nuclear weapons as we negotiate a replacement for START with Russia.”

President Obama also proposed that the US host a Global Summit on Nuclear Security within a year, highlighting the need for the international community to work together to address the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

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The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is a consortium of more than 100 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nuclearweaponsfree.org. The New Hampshire Council of Churches is a coalition partner with the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. For more information, visit www.nhchurches.org.

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Arms Control Advocates Respond to Encouraging Signs from the President

Cara Bautista — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:37:51 -0400

Oakland, CA - Today, as President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met for the first time, the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World applauded their embrace of arms control measures and pragmatic steps for nuclear arms reductions.

"A nuclear weapons free world is a safer world," said Cara Bautista, Coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World. "The risks presented by bloated US and Russian arsenals are high, and the two presidents' commitment today to achieving a nuclear free world is significant. Congress should work with President Obama to ensure progress toward this goal."

US and Russian stockpiles currently account for 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear weapons states are obligated to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

"There are more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, increasing the risk of accidents or theft. We support President Obama and President Medvedev's commitment to work together and hope that the final agreement achieves measurable, verifiable, and irreversible reductions down to 1,000 or fewer nuclear weapons for each country," stated Ms. Bautista. "Deep reductions by the US and Russia would send a strong signal to the rest of the world that now is the time to address the threat posed by nuclear weapons."

A 2008 World Public Opinion survey indicates that a majority of Americans would support such a goal. According to the poll, 73 percent of Americans favor the elimination of nuclear weapons, and 79 percent believe the US government should do more to achieve this end.

The joint statement by Obama and Medvedev also contained commitments to work on other positive steps to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime. These steps include: negotiations for a verifiable treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons, preventing nuclear terrorism, and US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

"Ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by the US would provide real security benefits," Ms. Bautista said. "A worldwide ban on nuclear weapons testing would help nonproliferation efforts by preventing nuclear weapons possessing states from fielding newer, deadlier warheads and impeding the emergence of new nuclear-weapons states."

Over 140 nations have ratified the CTBT. The United States has signed but not ratified the treaty, observing a moratorium on nuclear testing since 1992.

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National Citizens’ Coalition Calls On President Obama to Take Immediate Steps Toward a Nuclear Weapons-Free World

Cara Bautista — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:29:13 -0400

National Citizens’ Coalition Calls On President Obama to Take Immediate Steps Toward a Nuclear Weapons-Free World
Deliver Petition Endorsed by More Than 70,000; Former Reagan Arms Control Advisor Issues Statement on Nuclear Threat

For Immediate Release: March 11, 2009

Contacts: Reva Patwardhan, Peace Action West (510) 830-3600 ext. 112, rpatwardhan [at] peaceactionwest [dot] org
David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (805) 450-4083

(Washington, D.C.): Today, on behalf of more than 100 nongovernmental organizations and tens of thousands of individuals, representatives of the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation submitted a list of more than 70,000 signatures on a petition to the Obama administration calling on the President “to make a world free of nuclear weapons an urgent priority and to assure U.S. leadership to realize this goal.”

"Both the US and Russia have a moral responsibility to declare the development and possession of nuclear weapons to be crimes against our civilization. Our joint effort should form a worldwide consensus on a series of steps necessary to remove the nuclear threat to our civilization and to the lives of our children and grandchildren. It is time for the President of the United States to take the lead and call for a special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations for the purpose of ending the nuclear weapons threat to all humanity," said Ambassador Max Kampelman, a former arms control advisor to President Ronald Reagan.

The call for action toward a nuclear weapons-free world was also endorsed by over 100 national, state, and local organizations. The petition urges President Obama to pursue a series of concrete, immediate steps that would help fulfill the United States’ nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitment to achieve nuclear disarmament. These steps – many of which were Obama campaign promises -- include:

• Standing down all nuclear weapons from high-alert status;
• Committing not to use nuclear weapons first under any circumstance;
• Committing not to develop new types of nuclear weapons, such as the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead;
• Working with the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;
• Negotiating a global, verifiable Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty;
• Beginning multilateral nuclear arms reduction negotiations before the end of his first term; and
• Reallocating resources used to maintain and build nuclear forces for peaceful purposes.

The petition was launched last year by the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, a national coalition of more than 100 nongovernmental organizations, and the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The full text of the petition is available from www.wagingpeace.org/appeal.

“Our petition underscores the overwhelming support of the American people for faster, more concrete action to move toward fewer, not newer nuclear weapons. Americans want to reduce Cold-war era weapons stockpiles and eliminate the nuclear weapons threat,” said Cara Bautista, coordinator for the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World.

"Americans understand that by clinging to thousands of these weapons, the nuclear-armed nations of the world send the wrong message and make us all less secure,” she said.

According to a Harris Interactive national public opinion survey conducted last August, 68 percent of U.S. adults believe possession of nuclear weapons by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea encourages countries without nuclear weapons to develop them. For further details on the survey, see http://nuclearweaponsfree.presstools.org/node/32428.

“As the U.S. and Russian negotiators get ready to negotiate a new treaty that could achieve further reductions in the two countries’ still-bloated and extremely dangerous Cold War nuclear arsenals, we urge President Obama to reiterate that the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide is the central element of U.S. nuclear policy,” said David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met and pledged that they would negotiate a follow-on agreement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which is due to expire in December.

“Two decades after the end of the Cold War, there is no plausible reason for U.S. and Russian leaders to maintain thousands of strategic nuclear weapons with large numbers on high alert. Besides the United States and Russia, no state possesses more than 300 nuclear warheads. China currently only has about 20 nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking the continental United States,” noted Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association and an advisor to the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World.

"Dramatically deeper U.S.-Russian nuclear reductions and U.S. ratification of the test ban treaty would strengthen U.S. leadership efforts to bolster global efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons," Kimball noted.

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The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World is a consortium of more than 100 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For more information, visit www.nuclearweaponsfree.org. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons, the strengthening of international law, and the empowerment of peace leaders. For more information, visit www.wagingpeace.org.

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New Poll: Nuclear Weapons for Some Encourage Nuclear Weapons for All

Burton Glass — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:39:12 -0400

WASHINGTON DC -- Possession of nuclear weapons by some countries encourages others to develop their own nuclear arsenals, according to more than two-thirds of U.S. adults in a new opinion survey.

The findings, released before tomorrow's anniversary of nuclear proliferation, when the Soviet Union successfully tested its first nuclear bomb nearly 60 years ago, suggest the world needs a broader approach for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Americans understand that 'Do as I say, not as I do' is advice that is falling on deaf ears," said Susan Gordon, director of the nonprofit Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. "By clinging to thousands of these weapons, the nuclear nations of the world send the wrong message and make us all less secure.

"It's up to the next president to lead the world toward a nuclear weapons-free world, as part of his strategy to stop the spread of nuclear weapons," she said.

Gordon added that a growing number of conservatives such as former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz are now advocates of this approach. Both U.S. presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), endorse the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world.

Of those surveyed, 68 percent of U.S. adults believe possession of nuclear weapons by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea encourages countries without nuclear weapons to develop them.

Twenty-two percent of adults said it had no impact, and 11 percent said it discouraged development.

The survey was sponsored by the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World and written and conducted by Harris Interactive(r). Survey respondents answered this question:

Nine (9) countries - the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea - currently have nuclear weapons. The major nuclear powers have attempted to persuade other nations to not develop nuclear weapons. What impact do you think the possession of nuclear weapons by these countries has on other countries that do not currently possess nuclear weapons - do you think it discourages them from developing nuclear weapons, encourages them to develop nuclear weapons, or has no impact on their developing nuclear weapons?

The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World is a consortium of more than 80 organizations promoting practical steps today to free the world from nuclear weapons tomorrow. For details about the survey methodology or more information about the campaign, visit: http://www.nuclearweaponsfree.org.

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Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, 322 4th St., NE, Washington, DC 20002 United States

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