Letters to the Editor, June 8, 2004

The article on Muhammed el-Najjar was horrifying. I visited Rafah in February and I have known a Muhammed. el-Najjar for 10 years. Did he live in Canada Camp, on the Egyptian side of Rafah, before coming back to Gaza just a few years ago? His house and that of Said Bayoumi are on the edge of Tel al Sultan, close to the Gush Katif Block. I know for sure that the Bayoumis came over from Egyptian side because I was there when they came across and also the Najjars and had worked with all of the families in Canada Camp for many years trying to get them back to Gaza. I was able to help raise some money to get them back through the Canada government. If they are the same people, this needs a bigger story in Canada because our money paid for most of the new houses in Tel al Sultan. Let me know please. I will try to contact some people in Gaza to find out also.

Editor: Yes, yes, it’s about Muhammed Mustafa El-Najjar. He and his other relatives, like Said Saleem Al-Bayoumi, were in the Canada camp on the Egyptian side of the border. They were given lots of lands there to build their homes on the same land that was used by the Canadian peace-keeping force until 1967. The Israelis demolished their homes in the Palestinian side of Rafah and gave them land on the Egyptian side of the city. When they withdrew from Sinai in 1982, the Canada Camp residents were left on the Egyptian side cut off their relatives and jobs. It took several years and efforts from good people like you to allow them to return to the Palestinian side of Rafah.

This is a call for you and for anyone else who are knowledgeable about these Palestinians refugees to write about it.

Please write about your work in the Canada camp in Rafah. People need to know about the daily life suffering of the Palestinians because of the Israeli occupation.

We all know how powerful the media are in the US and Europe, and their influence on the public. But the media in US are controlled by the Government as a propaganda machine. They are being exploited to tarnish Islam and Muslims.

Perhaps you can tell us why can’t the rich Muslim countries establish their own media in US and air or publish their side of the events and try to reach the US citizens giving them an alternative views of the Muslims world.

This will help educate the public in US and give them the opportunity to better understand the Muslim world. Such long term investment will bring about other spin-off benefits which may not be in the form of money alone.

The Muslim world should seriously consider working together and establish a powerful media around the world and counter the stereotyping of Islam and Muslims as violent with propensity towards terrorism.

Editor: I agree that the Arabs and Muslims need their own media in the US, particularly a TV station, a major newspaper, and a major magazine. Arab and Muslim governments are not going to do it because of their ties to the US government. Only people can do it. The American people are ready to hear the other viewpoint. I expect that many Americans are willing to subscribe to an Arab-Muslim TV station.

I urge Americans, Arabs, and Muslims everywhere who are interested in the idea of a TV station here in America that provides the Arab and Muslim viewpoints to contact me at:

Finally, for a detailed answer to your question about why Arab and Muslim governments would not do such efforts as this one, read my following editorial:

Greenpeace activities, with proliferation & plutonium focus at the G-8 summit.

We will also join demonstrations, etc.

Tom Clements

Greenpeace international

cell 1-202-415-6158

Greenpeace International

June 4, 2004

Funding for Plutonium Fuel Program (MOX)

at G-8 Summit Faces Obstacles;

Plutonium Photo Exhibit & Briefings in Savannah

to Underscore Threats of G-8 Plutonium Program

in Russia and at Nearby Savannah River Site (SRS)

Savannah, Georgia -- Controversial plans for the "disposition" of surplus weapons plutonium, on the agenda of the upcoming G-8 summit, may progress little due to concerns about it by some countries, according to Greenpeace International, which is opposed to the program as outlined. To underscore the threat of the plutonium program, the global environmental and disarmament organization is bringing a provocative plutonium photo exhibit to Savannah (site of G-8 media center) during the June 8-10 summit.

The U.S.-Russia plan to dispose of plutonium by making nuclear fuel out of it in both countries poses a proliferation and environmental threat that must not be supported by the G-8 and associated countries, according to Greenpeace.

"We are calling on the G-8 to halt plans to fund the fabrication of nuclear fuel from weapons plutonium as this presents a clear proliferation and safety risk," said Tom Clements, Senior Adviser with the Nuclear Campaign of Greenpeace International. "The G-8 must withdraw funds for a proliferation-prone plutonium processing infrastructure in Russia and support management of weapons plutonium as nuclear waste." The G8 will discuss proliferation and WMD issues on June 9.

In order to highlight the risk of the plutonium disposition program, Greenpeace is bringing to Savannah a provocative photo exhibit that underscores the social, health and environmental costs of production of weapons plutonium in Russia. "Half Life - Living with the Effects of Nuclear Waste," is a collection of provocative photos taken around Russia?s massive Mayak plutonium site. The U.S. opening of the exhibit and associated briefings, which will be attended by Greenpeace Russia, are as follows:

June 4, Fri. Starland Center for Contemporary Art, 2428 Bull

Street, Savannah

6 p.m. Starland's "First Friday" - U.S. opening of "Half Life: Living With

the Effects of Nuclear Waste," by Dutch photographer Robert Knoth;

exhibit runs through June 15

7 p.m. Panel discussion: "Plutonium Proliferation, Nuclear Waste &

the G-8"

June 8, Tues. The Sentient Bean, 13 East Park Ave., Savannah

7 p.m. Briefing on the Summit and the Global Partnership:

"Plutonium: The G-8, Proliferation and the Savannah River Site" -- will include comments on G8 & the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)

8:30 p.m Nuclear films -- "Invasion USA," a campy Hollywood

production, and "Red Nightmare," a Cold War propaganda short

Events are sponsored by Greenpeace International. Co-sponsorship and participation in briefings by local & regional groups: Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ) and Georgians Against Nuclear Energy (GANE)

In large part due to Russian concern over the nuclear accident liability of Western companies providing plutonium processing technology to Russia, the program has stalled and could be on the verge of collapse. Greenpeace has been told by one G-8 country that funding for the plutonium program in Russia is likely not to advance at the summit due to concern about it.

The plutonium program is part of the G-8's Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, which was established at the 2002 summit and is now subject to annual reporting at the summit. "Failure of the G-8 to give a progress report on the plutonium program will signal that many G-8 or Global Partnership countries do not support the struggling program," said Clements.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is aiming to build multi-billion dollar facilities to make mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel (MOX) from weapons plutonium in spite of an admission to Congress that mixing the plutonium with existing high-level nuclear waste is cheaper. DOE is this year requesting $368 million to start construction of a MOX plant at the Savannah River Site (SRS), the licensing of which is being challenged before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Cheryl Jay, a Savannah resident who is organizing the photo exhibit and briefings, said "I encourage local citizens to come to the events an learn about the plutonium issue being discussed by the G-8. We live downstream from SRS, where a lot of plutonium for this program could be processed so it impacts us all."

DOE admitted in February that it could not meet its 2003 pledge to Congress to start construction of the MOX pant at SRS this year and that such construction could not happen before 2005 even if legal an political obstacles are overcome. SRS is a 300-square-mile nuclear weapons facility located upstream from Savannah on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River.

As part of the U.S. MOX program, DOE is planning as early as this summer to ship 330 pounds of weapons plutonium via Charleston, South Carolina to France for fabrication into MOX test fuel. The ?lead test assemblies? would be returned via Charleston and taken to the Duke Power reactor at Catawba in South Carolina. On non- proliferation grounds, Greenpeace International has mounted a legal challenge to the DOE request for an export license from the NRC. "The provocative and unnecessary plan to ship plutonium around the world highlights the proliferation risk of the G-8's MOX program," said Clements.

"Given growing global concern over proliferation of nuclear materials, the G-8 must set an example and refuse to support a MOX program which only results in more processing and transport of plutonium," said Clements. "As support of MOX means nothing less than support of nuclear proliferation, the G-8 must affirm that plutonium must permanently be removed from weapons, taken out of commerce and managed as nuclear waste."

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For more information:

Tom Clements, Greenpeace International,

cell 202-415-6158 (in Savannah, June 1-11),

tom.clements@wdc.greenpace.org;

Cheryl Jay, Savannah events organizer, 912-356-1330

Notes:

1. For some of the Mayak photos and for more information on Mayak,

see http://www.greenpeace.org/mayak; Mayak is the site of a new

U.S.-financed plutonium storage facility, which would provide feed for a yet-to-be-built Russian MOX plant.

2. Documents on the Global Partnership from the 2003 summit can be found at http://www.g8.fr/evian/english/home.html

3. For more information on DOE's plan to ship plutonium via

Charleston to France, see Citizens Against Plutonium (CAP) web site:

http://www.noplutonium.org. For risks to the overland transport of the U.S. and French plutonium in France, see

http://www.stop-plutonium.org.

4. The Savannah River Site now stores about 6 tons of weapons

plutonium and has over 35 million gallons of deadly high-level nuclear waste in 49 aging tanks. DOE is now fighting in Congress to reclassify this was and dump much of it in the ground, a move opposed by environmental groups. For more information see:

http://www.ananuclear.org/HLWpage.html

Wendy Patten, U.S. Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch