I usually send a second round of these newsletter announcements to people who haven't opened it yet, but this time there's some late-breaking news that deserves a resend, plus some updates to the August Desert Witness calendar and an op-ed I have submitted to the LV Review Journal, as yet unpublished.

What follows are announcements of events for the August Desert Witness from August 5 to August 9. Because the world's largest trade show for remotely operated vehicles is taking place in Las Vegas from Hiroshima Day (8/6) to Nagasaki Day (8/9), our focus will include both drones and nukes with activities in both Las Vegas and by the Nevada Test Site.

The Desert Voices coverage of the Spring's events, especially the Sacred Peace Walk and the Chicago anti-NATO demonstrations included numerous photographs and reflections, more than can be shared in this electronic newsletter. So enjoy the sampling of images and writings, but do download and view the newsletter, to see even more full-color pics; also, these and other NDE image galleries are up on our website, so you can see even more.

And please take a moment now to send a donation to Nevada Desert Experience. If you got a newsletter in the mail use the envelope, or see the address below. We really need everyone to increase your support, even a little, to keep NDE pushing the peace envelope in Nevada and beyond.

As always, we want to hear what you're up to, how NDE's work dovetails with yours, and any other ideas you may have. Thanks to Mary Lou Anderson for editorial assistance (and more). Contact me at <jim@NevadaDesertExperience.org> or 702-646-4814.

Gratefully yours
Jim Haber, NDE Coordinator

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The big news: Sister Megan is all over the news for being one of three "Transform Now" Plowshares activists who got through layers of security and fences at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They were able to pour blood, stand with banners and pray outside the building where the most highly enriched, bomb-grade uranium in the world is stored. As a result, the nuclear material has been stored in vaults and operations will be shut down for a week or so! As I said in the op-ed I submitted yesterday to the LV Review Journal (word on publication still pending), "Much alarm has been raised about the lack of alarm raised during their intrusion, but really, the alarm should be going off about the insecurity for the whole world created by nuclear weapons themselves."

At their 3rd court appearance this week, the judge decided to release Megan Rice and Michael Walli, but to hold Greg Boertje-Obed because he wouldn't consent to any conditions to be released. Mike and Megan will be staying at the Riverside Nonviolent Community House with Lissa McLeod and Jake Weinstein until their next court appearance on Thursday, August 9. Letters can be sent to them at 4627 Martin Mill Pike, Knoxville, TN 37920.

Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont Street
(NW Corner of 6th and Fremont) Event will be in the Common Gallery on the first floor behind The Beat Cafe.

Come hear Medea Benjamin,co-Founder of the organization CODEPINK: Women for Peace, read from her new book, Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. This is an excellent conversation starter and well-rounded introduction to the subject. Benjamin is great at connecting the dots, raising ethical questions and speaking passionately. The Beat Cafe will be open.

Parking available: Valet at El Cortez on 6th and Ogden
Free Parking Garage entrance on 7th between Ogden and Fremont
Metered street parking on 6th or 7th street, bring some quarters!
Parking along Jackie Gaughn Parkway metered credit card or coins!

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Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is meeting at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. 8000 People from 40 Countries will be celebrating and looking to capitalize on the latest craze in war-making and surveillance.

If you want to help be a fly in the ointment of this new killing machine's smooth running, check in with us. We're really going to try to have conversations with attendees. Access into the trade show is NOT free, and there will be different ways for people to participate. Monday afternoon and Tuesday look pretty interesting.

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Sekhmet Temple and Guest House, Cactus Springs

Dinner and discussion on the eve of the 67th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

Spend the night in the guest house or your tent if you want to be near the Nevada Test Site for the Sunrise Ceremony in the morning. Or drive out to Peace Camp after dinner for an even shorter trip in the morning to the Mercury gate for sunrise.

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Off the Mercury exit on US-95

Join Johnnie Bobb, friars Louis Vitale and Jerry Zawada, and friends for sunrise in memory of all victims of nuclearism. Take offramp for Mercury; make U-turn before you cross the line to the NNSS; demonstrator parking is off the road on the right almost all the way back to the freeway overpass. It takes about 65 minutes to drive to the NNSS from Las Vegas.

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National Atomic Testing Museum, 755 E. Flamingo Road.

Greet visitors to this museum that is devoted to remembering the Cold War in all its nuclear glory...and not much of the horror. We will informally supplement the discourse and remind people of the ongoing fallout of the nuclear arms race since 1945 as we memorialize the victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

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Islamic Society of Southern Nevada
4730 East Desert Inn Road, Las Vegas

With music, dinner and stimulating,
dynamic, thought-provoking discussions.

How do we create more peace and less violence in the world and in our daily lives? What are some tools we can draw on? Experiences to learn from? Examples when nonviolence prevailed over violence?

Includes Complimentary Dinner and Refreshments
Free Admission ($10 donation suggested)

Presenters include:
Vincent Harding, Veterans of Hope Project
Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence (just back from another trip to Afghanistan)
Mary Litell, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service and Capacitar International
Rae Abileah, CODEPINK Women for Peace and Young, Jewish & Proud
Ahmed Younis, Silatech, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communication
The Choir of St. James the Apostle Catholic Church

Free Child Care: RSVP to Jim Haber at Nevada Desert Experience.
Other questions? Contact Jim: 702-626-4814, jim@nevadadesertexperience.org

Donate in support of this extraordinary memorial event here.

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The participants of this year’s Sacred Peace Walk (SPW) were particularly cohesive and relaxed together. These walks are truly a blessing of spirit and politics, colored with the ever changing, ever awe inspiring desert light. The rest of the country may be as hot as Las Vegas right now, but we still have a landscape that magically transforms in color throughout the day!

NATO is responsible for making and increasing war and violence in many places around the world, in particular Afghanistan. Nuclear weapons remain in Europe as well, and NDE and our allies continue to organize for an end to the B61 upgrades.

August 6 to 9 is a time to reflect on the impact of nuclear weapons on our lives because in 1945, the only two atomic bombs ever used in wartime were dropped by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Every year contemporary events color the view. Here are a few juxtapositions to contemplate in 2012.

Since the United States continues to possess and upgrade its nuclear warheads, bombs and delivery systems, activism at the Nevada Test Site (NTS, now named the Nevada National Security Site) and other facilities in the nuclear weapons complex is vitally necessary. Despite receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and seeming to pledge to work to abolish nuclear weapons, President Obama has proposed the 2013 nuclear weapons budget be 66% higher than it was in 2000 even though there are fewer nukes in the arsenal. Those plans include quadrupling the size of plants at Los Alamos, Kansas City and Oak Ridge that produce the parts (radioactive and otherwise) for refurbishing and upgrading the US nuclear arsenal.

Last Saturday, in a nod to the upcoming, devastating, atomic anniversaries, Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ of Nevada Desert Experience (which has organized interfaith resistance to nuclear weapons and war since 1984) breached security at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Sr. Megan, who along with two men dubbed themselves the "Transform Now! Plowshares," cut through several fences, poured blood on the building that houses the most highly-enriched, bomb-grade uranium in the world, and held banners saying "Swords into Plowshares. Spears into Pruning Hooks" and other slogans. Much alarm has been raised about the lack of alarm raised during their intrusion, but really, the alarm should be going off about the insecurity for the whole world created by nuclear weapons themselves. Transform Now--and all the other Plowshares actions--shows that nuclear weapons are inherently unsafe, not just that they aren't guarded well.

Deadly covert actions and the ringing of Iran with overt US military assets is a far more existential threat to the world than any alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran is entitled to enrich uranium, and despite all the political pressure and rhetoric, there is shockingly scant evidence that they're working on nuclear weapons, even less to justify the sanctions and threats from Israel and the United States to strike Iranian sites. If the tables were turned, we would never tolerate so many foreign bases just off our shores like we're demanding Iran accept of ours. I'm scared of  US and Israeli attack plans on Iran and decry the string of assassinations of Iranian scientists, widely attributed to Israeli operatives. What chutzpah it would be, if Israel were to attack Iran for an alleged nuclear program, while it refuses to admit to the fact that it possesses a sizable nuclear force already! This could be the gravest, most explosive, on-going hypocrisy in the world today because it undermines any nascent proto-trust which is the kernel out of which any successful negotiations could grow.

In what I consider a major affront to the memories of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from August 6 to 9 in Las Vegas, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is holding the world's largest trade show and promotional convention for all things robotic. Deadly mistakes with militarized Predator and Reaper drones are widespread the more they are utilized. More dead family-members create more potential enemies. Fighters seem to rise and multiply from the dead whenever we attack a Taliban funeral party. And as drones are made smaller and more numerous, more innocent people will be hurt and killed. The meaning of the constitutional protection of due process and the importance of upholding rather than undermining international humanitarian law seem lost on our government and the arms manufacturers. They act as though wars exist to prove their destructive creativity and boost their bottom lines instead of lamenting war as the most extreme form of human failure. The fear of being watched constantly is becoming less paranoia and all too real as weapons once pointing away will surely be turned on their original masters.

The push for more robots that are independent of live, human control ("autonomous systems") is also very real and troubling. I wonder how much people working on these machines think about Schwarzenneger's  fictional Terminator, as reality seems to mimic cinema. In May, 2011 the Los Angeles Times reported on meetings between Pentagon officials and weapons manufacturers for the development of a nuclear bomber that could be flown remotely and would have increasing amounts of autonomy. It seems like such a bad idea, giving anything the power to launch nuclear war since no thing and no one is error-free.

The idea that technology can provide a cleaner and safer battlefield is seductive but has been proven a lie. From the catapult and crossbow, through the use of poison gas and airplanes in World War I, the atom bomb, helicopters and napalm in Vietnam to the “smart bombs” of the Gulf War, war has only grown deadlier. Technological advances may reduce the danger of casualties among military personnel in the short run, but with each advance the number of civilian deaths multiplies and every war of the past century has numbered more children than soldiers among its victims.

May the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remind us not turn to technology to save us from ourselves. Only we can do that.

Submitted 3 August 2012 to the Las Vegas Review Journal by

Jim Haber, Coordinator

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