Congressional Record Weekly Update

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1A) Shipping Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain
Ms. BERKLEY. Madam Speaker, Congress will soon vote on whether to send nuclear waste to a scientifically unsound and leaky repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Department of Energy has tried to hide how they plan to ship at least 77,000 tons of toxic nuclear waste through 45 States. There may be more than 108 shipments, not to mention as many as 3,000 shipments by barge.

The real dirty secret that the DOE has tried desperately to ignore is the immense vulnerability of these transports. More than 123 million people live in the 703 counties along DOE's proposed highway routes and 106 million people live in counties along DOE's rail routes. Even routine radiation from the casks, given off while passing on the highway, would be a health risk for people living and working in the vicinity of the transportation routes.

The threat of terrorism is more real for Americans more now than ever. At every stage of transport, nuclear waste would be vulnerable to a devastating terrorist attack that would result in massive civilian casualties and severe financial loss.

The risks associated with transporting nuclear waste are clear. The question is, are we willing to play nuclear roulette with our Districts? Say no and oppose Yucca Mountain.

1B) A Call to Abolish Nuclear Arms
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in the RECORD an urgent call for the world to end the threat of destruction from nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Despite the Cold War's demise over a decade ago, the possibility that a nuclear device or other weapon of mass destruction will one day wreak devastation remains real. Rather than defuse this threat by working to reduce the world's stores of these weapons, the current Administration has instead begun to explore ways to enhance our nuclear capabilities. The time has come for this Administration, this Congress, and this country to commit to the abolition of nuclear , chemical, and biological weapons. We must heed this urgent call.

An urgent call ending threats of mass destruction. Today, cities and nations are threatened as never before by weapons of mass destruction. The events of September 11 have brought home to Americans what it means to experience a catastrophic attack. Yet the horrifying losses that day were but a fraction of what any nation would suffer if a single nuclear weapon were used on a city, or a deadly, contagious disease were set loose in the land.

The peril from weapons of mass destruction is growing. Even as the great powers have refused to give up their nuclear arms, more nations have built nuclear weapons and threatened to use them. Terrorist groups are now seeking to acquire and use every kind of weapon of mass destruction. The threats posed by huge stocks, proliferation, and terrorists can no longer be considered in isolation from one another. The nuclear powers' refusal to disarm fuels proliferation, and proliferation makes weapons of mass destruction ever more accessible to terrorists.

Despite the end of the cold war, U.S. administrations of both parties have planned to keep nuclear weapons indefinitely. Recently, the Bush administration's Nuclear Posture Review proposed to reduce ``active'' warheads; but this plan would keep the whole U.S. nuclear arsenal, active plus reserve, at its present size of about 10,000 warheads through 2012. Meanwhile, President Bush has requested funds to expand nuclear -weapons construction facilities and develop new ``usable'' nuclear weapons for a growing list of targets in the third world.

This drift toward catastrophe must be reversed. The time has come to say, Enough! Enough to the great powers who hold vast populations hostage to nuclear terror. Enough to nations that are spreading the threat of annihilation to new regions. Enough to the terrorists who plan the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, Safety from all weapons of mass destruction must be our goal. We can reach it only through cooperation among nations embodied in binding treaties and agreements.

We therefore call on the governments of the nuclear powers to commit themselves to abolish nuclear weapons and to set forth plans to move together, step by carefully inspected and verified step, toward this goal. As a first step, we call on the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals over the next few years, tactical and strategic, active and reserve, to 1,000 weapons each. As a second step, we call on these countries and the other nuclear powers--England, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan--to proceed in the following few years to reduce their arsenals to no more than 100 nuclear weapons each. As a third step, these nations should separate all nuclear -warheads from their delivery vehicles, in preparation for their ultimate elimination. Simultaneously, the nuclear powers should strengthen the Nonproliferation Treaty by ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban and adopting a ban on the Production of Fissile Material. The United States should complete talks to end North Korea's missile program, and the UN should institute an effective inspection regime in Iraq. The existing international bans on chemical and biological weapons should be made universal and fortified with stronger means of inspection and verification. Thus, measures to prevent proliferation and terrorist uses of weapons of mass destruction would go hand in hand with nuclear reductions.

Steps to eliminate weapons of mass destruction should be accompanied by steps to reduce the temptation to acquire or use them. The United States and other countries should redouble their efforts to resolve regional conflicts and prevent conventional war, and to build respect for the rule of law, protect human rights, and promote democratic institutions. And the wealthy industrial nations should launch a new Marshall Plan to help the poorest nations end starvation, illiteracy, and preventable disease, wipe out the burden of debt, and move toward sustainable development and a lasting peace, based on respect for the dignity and worth of every individual.

3B)Iran and WMD
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush rightly emphasized that ``Iran aggressively pursues weapons [of mass destruction] and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.'' This grim reality was recently underscored in the latest report by the U.N. Special Representative on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran who denounced an increase in public stonings, floggings, and executions in Iran.

Attorney General John Ashcroft pointed last year to the Iranian regime's role in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The Minister of the Revolutionary Guards at the time claimed responsibility for the 1983 bombing against Americans in Lebanon and said: ``both the TNT and ideology which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs and soldiers at the Marine Headquarters have been provided by Iran.'' The Iranian regime continues to support the terrorist and fundamentalist groups in the region. The intervention of the Revolutionary Guards in Afghanistan is of great concern as well.

The Iranian regime's track record inside the country is even worse, and includes the execution of some 120,000 and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands for political charges. In a resolution last December, the UN General Assembly condemned the ``growing number of executions,'' in particular ``public and especially cruel executions, such as stoning,'' and ``the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,'' as well as discrimination against persons belonging to minorities'' and the ``systematic discrimination against women.'' In the same month, the European Parliament in a unanimous resolution announced that the human rights situation in Iran has actually deteriorated in many aspects.

Five years after President Khatami's election, the Iranian regime continues to be the leading state sponsor of terrorism , pursues an ambitious weapons of mass destruction program, and has stepped up repression against its own population. This is further substantiated in the State Department human rights report released on March 4th of this year, which states that the regime's record ``regarding freedom of expression, which has worsened during the past few years, continued to deteriorate;'' that ``the Government denies the universality of human rights;'' and that ``discrimination against women is reinforced by law'' with the regime enforcing ``gender segregation in most public spaces.'' Summarizing the horrific situation in Iran, the State Department report highlights that: ``Systematic abuses include summary executions, disappearances, widespread use of torture and other degrading treatment.......''

The State Department report on human rights practices also acknowledges that resistance groups such as the Mojahedin have become the target of the political repression of the Iranian regime. The report states that supporters of political organizations ``such as the Mojahedin, are believed to make up a large number of those executed each year.'' Photographic evidence of the flogging and hangings that supporters of the Mojahedin are subjected to was provided at a hearing on March 6, 2002 of the House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the Committee on International Relations.

The President announced recently that in dealing with regimes such as Iran's, ``the price of indifference would be catastrophic.'' I agree, and I urge the Administration to review all options available to hold the Iranian government accountable for its support of terrorism and its abysmal human rights record, and to help promote democratic change in the country.

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