Native Americans Want 'Bunker Buster' Test Stopped

[deadparrot]

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 (OneWorld) - Native Americans want U.S. authorities to cancel plans to detonate 700 tons of explosives on what they say is tribal land in Nevada.

The planned explosion, scheduled for June 2 some 90 miles from Las Vegas, is aimed at aiding U.S. efforts to develop ''bunker buster'' weapons capable of penetrating solid rock. Officials have suggested the test would constitute the largest non-nuclear, open-air blast in the test site's history.

Federal officials have described such efforts as essential to the administration of President George W. Bush's self-styled "war on terror" but to leaders of the Shoshone, also known as the Newe people, the planned detonation is just the latest in a decades-long history of experiments at the Nevada Test Site to shake the earth and raise a dust cloud.

"We are opposed to any further military testing on our lands," said Raymond Yowell, chief of the Western Shoshone National Council.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/45361306871144719531

[benevolent dictator]

1. kick

[juajen]

2. I agree. This is bad and should not be done.

How many WMD do we have to have. Bigger and better ways to bully people and spend taxpayers money.

[henslee]

3. Lets haul that shit to the Australian outback, Detonate it. Sell tickets.

and beer.

[Spurt]

11. Don't you think...

... that the Aboriginals who roam the outback would be just as pissed as the Shoshone are?

I think a pig farm would be a good place to test it. Perhaps a disused one somewhere in Texas.
You would get a much bigger crowd buying tickets. ;-)

[henslee]

19. Good point. I give up.

[Kailassa]

28. Well said. Our natives don't want it either.

At least, not unless Bush an his little mate Johnny stand on top of it while it goes up.
We'd sure drink to that.
And we'll send Condi running over with a potty,
in case Bush thinks he might need to go to the bathroom.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's going to take so long to bring our country back to the present,

after _Bush leaves, IF he'll leave. He has pulled us back to the very worst parts of this country's past.
We outgrew this primitive state a long time ago, before the right-wing cheated its way into power. We've got to regain so much progress as soon as we can.

I don't blame the Shoshone people for being very unhappy about this completely unnecessary, unjustified, destructive muscle flexing.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

5. you're right---Permanent Chimpy-he's never leaving

he wants to play army with nukes

[saigon68]

8. he is touched by insanity

[laylah]

13. I respectfully disagree, Saigon68

he isn't TOUCHED by insanity, he is consumed by it, the bottom feeding, low life, murdering dumbass that he is :mad:

Jenn

[saigon68]

27. You are Right

On second thought I underestimated his insanity

Shock therapy, Zoloft and Prozac won't work to stabilize him

LOOK INTO HIS EYES

HIS VACANT STARE.

[stellanoir]

6. this operative phrase . . .

"self-styled "war on terror"" speaks bloody volumes.

[rodeodance]

7. The US has claimed ownership on the land.

.....The site of the latest proposed test sits on the land recognized under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley as part of the tribe's national territory, Shoshone leaders said, and the U.S. military therefore has no right to use it.

The U.S. government disagreed and has asserted its ownership of the land.

''Without going through a lot of detail, the issue of ownership of the land area occupied by the Nevada Test Site, and for that matter very large sections of Nevada and Utah, is very complex (going back to the Ruby Valley Treaty) and in our eyes has been resolved,'' said Kevin Rohrer, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates the test site.

The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1985 that the Shoshone had been paid in full for the land under the Indian Claims Commission Act of 1946 ''and thus the land is property of the United States Government,'' Rohrer said in an email.

''My understanding is that funding has been set aside in a trust account for compensation but there is disagreement among Western Shoshone on whether they should accept the funding,'' he added.

[daleo]

20. It sounds like the Shoshone haven't accepted the funding

So, it is probably a very bad deal that they want nothing to do with. I suppose the government thinks that if they blow up the place enough times the natives will just give in. Much like their thinking on Iraq, and Viet Nam before that.

[NVMojo]

30. Some want the money but Reid and Gibbons didn't identify any fund

to ever pay it. Still haven't. Those who don't want it are not accepting that their treaty ever be interpreted to be a "land" treaty. It was a friendship treaty to allow the railroad to get to California and the telegraph wires during the gold rush days. then they were force to walk to lands on the border of Owyhee and forced there with Pauites. They walked back to this area and live on executive order "colonies". Small ones. The Dann sisters lived on ranch lands, I believe they are called "alottments". They are not on a "reservation" or "colony". There are several Tribes, federally recognized, under the Western Shoshone Nation. The Te-Moak in the area I live, are the biggest, there is also the Yomba, down past Winnemucca; the Duckwater Tribe near Ely; and the Timbisha Tribe down near Death Valley.

The Timbisha had a monumental land settlement in 2000 that gave them back sacred lands in and about Death Valley. The rest are still waiting for lands.

So you have the "lands" Shoshone" and the "claims" Shoshone.

No matter what, there has been no tribe in America that hasn't been "screwed blue and tattooed" by the feds.

[daleo]

31. Thanks for the information

The situation is similar in Canada, for many aboriginal groups.

[Maine-ah]

9. K & R

[rodeodance]

15. k

[leftchick]

10. given the exposure of the Iran plans

you would think Harry Reid would rethink this and object to it.

[katinmn]

12. You'd think. Instead, he's in support

He knows on which side his bread is buttered.

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. Aren't these "bunker buster" bombs nuclear?

I seem to recall that these were actually low-yield nuclear devices. Or am I thinking of something else?

[Karmakaze]

16. You are right, but...

This aprticular test is only a SIMULATION of such a nuke bunker buster. In this test they have buried 700 tons of ANFO 18 feet deep above a tunnel designed to simulate a bunker entrance tunnel. To me it looks like they are simply trying to figure out how much damage can be done to the tunnel with a small nuke.

So it is a SIMULATED nuclear test.

[daleo]

21. I think they are also interested in the fallout pattern

The fact that this sand has had nukes exploded on it before probably means it will be easy to determine the fallout produced by an explosion this size (the sand is probably still slightly radioactive, and that would provide a sensitive marker for the fallout pattern).

[Karmakaze]

23. Good point!

In fact it is about everything - how big a bang to get the desired results for the least fallout. Remember the B61-11 EPW is a dial-a-yield weapon - they want to know what yield to dial in!

[daleo]

24. You're right - they will dial "M" for murder. n/t

[Kailassa]

29. Will those dials will ever be set to less than maximum

when used against an "enemy"?

I doubt it.

[Karmakaze]

32. Sure they will...

Don't want fallout contaminating the oil fields. Just restrict it to a few Iranian cities, and "no harm, no foul!"

[THUNDER HANDS]

25. detonate it on a golf course

talk about a hazard!

[Zorra]

17. Detonate the bomb on some private land near Crawford,

Texas - there's a guy down there that is all in favor of military testing. Let him blow it up on his land.

[mimitabby]

18. kick

[WhiteTara]

22. I wish them well in this pursuit!

I am so happy that there is someone with a place to say no.

[UrbScotty]

26. K&R for peace (nt)