This is a video in English, by Beppe Grillo from Italy, against plans to expand the US military base in Vicenza.
From Italian news agency ANSA:
Spotlight back on US military base
Consumer group steps up campaign against Vicenza project
Vicenza, September 3 – A top consumer rights’ group on Monday stepped up its battle against the controversial expansion of a US military base in northern Italy, filing suit against Premier Romano Prodi and several ministers for allegedly failing to release documents it says are crucial to its cause. Codacons has turned to the regional administrative appeals court TAR (which is often called on in legal tangles involving private citizens or companies and the State) in its bid to prevent the enlargement of the base in the northwestern city of Vicenza.
Codacons wants the TAR to annul the government’s recent green light to the expansion plan, arguing that the Prodi administration has failed to assess the full environmental impact of the project on the UNESCO-listed city.
The association began legal proceedings on Monday against Prodi, Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema, Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato and several local politicians saying they had omitted to hand over documents relating to the expansion project which Codacons needed for its case.
It accused the ministers of breaching the law on the transparency of administrative documents.
TAR judges will begin examining Codacons’ case on Tuesday.
The Vicenza base currently houses some 2,750 troops.
The expansion project involves building barracks at the Dal Molin airport on the other side of the city to accommodate 2,100 more US soldiers who are at the moment stationed in Germany.
Washington’s aim is to unite its 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is divided at the moment between Vicenza and two bases in Germany.
Prodi announced in January that he would not object to the base’s expansion, arguing that it was diplomatically impossible to go back on the informal consent given to Washington by the previous, Silvio Berlusconi-led government.
The decision sparked a series of protests including a massive demonstration by residents who fear that the enlargement will strain the city and its resources.
Critics are particularly concerned about the impact on a city which boasts a host of buildings and villas by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who settled in Vicenza and practically rebuilt the city. For this reason, Vicenza is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.
Environmentalists also stress that the base’s enlargement will involve the destruction of one of the city’s main green areas.
Surveys show that some 70% of Vicenza’s 115,000 residents are against base expansion.
The Vicenza council has thrown out proposals to hold a referendum on the issue even though local polls have shown that 84% of locals would like to have a say on the matter.
The problem has also created divisions in the centre-left, nine-party governing coalition.
Three of Prodi’s allies, the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), the Italian Communists’ Party (PDCI) and the Greens, have demanded that locals be given the chance to express their views via a referendum.
But Prodi says there can be no backpedalling on his decision.
In the meantime, the government has approved procedures inviting bids from construction companies interested in carrying out the enlargement. According to Codacons, the base’s expansion violates Italy’s constitutionally enshrined pacifist principles. It also says the project requires the approval of the European Council, an executive body of the European Union.
Codacons chief Carlo Rienzi said recently that “our initiative has nothing to do with politics. Our only concern is to protect the resident population, which is entitled to live in peace and safety. The fact is that the city could become a military target if this goes ahead”.
Rienzi said his association also wanted an assessment of the environmental impact of the base’s depleted-uranium stockpiles, electricity plants and fuel stocks.
Related articles
- Italy’s Prodi wants to keep job as UN Sahel envoy (nzherald.co.nz)
- Italy wants its island back, will pay £2.5 million for Budelli (telegraph.co.uk)
- Italy’s “Forconi” movement (rinf.com)
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
From the Leftwing Yahoo! group in the USA:
Breaking news on US and radiological weapons
Posted by: “Charles Jenks” charles@traprockpeace.org chaspeace
Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:51 pm (PST)
Doug Rokke, Ph.D., Major (ret.) USAR, was the inside whistle blower on the US use of radiological weapons against the people of Iraq and – by their being exposed to these weapons – US soldiers and their families. Now, the AP reports on US plans to develop and use radioactive weapons for assassination and contamination of “populated or otherwise critical areas for long periods of time.” Following the report, Rokke comments on continued use of radioactive weapons by the US and notably by Israel against Palestinians and the people of Lebanon. (See the link below to the photo of an Israeli army soldier loading his tank with a US-supplied uranium weapon during Israel’s war against Hezbollah in July, 2006.) – Charles Jenks, traprockpeace.org
U.S. Considered Radiological Weapon
By ROBERT BURNS
October 9, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate “important individuals” such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military’s pursuit of a “new concept of warfare” using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking to contaminate swaths of enemy land or to target military bases, factories or troop formations.
Military historians who have researched the broader radiological warfare program said in interviews that they had never before seen evidence that it included pursuit of an assassination weapon.
Targeting public figures in such attacks is not unheard of; just last year an unknown assailant used a tiny amount of radioactive polonium-210 to kill Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.
No targeted individuals are mentioned in references to the assassination weapon in the government documents declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the AP in 1995.
The decades-old records were released recently to the AP, heavily censored by the government to remove specifics about radiological warfare agents and other details. The censorship reflects concern that the potential for using radioactive poisons as a weapon is more than a historic footnote; it is believed to be sought by present-day terrorists bent on attacking U.S. targets.
The documents give no indication whether a radiological weapon for targeting high-ranking individuals was ever used or even developed by the United States. They leave unclear how far the Army project went.
One memo from December 1948 outlined the project and another memo that month indicated it was under way. The main sections of several subsequent progress reports in 1949 were removed by censors before release to the AP.
The broader effort on offensive uses of radiological warfare apparently died by about 1954, at least in part because of the Defense Department’s conviction that nuclear weapons were a better bet.
Whether the work migrated to another agency such as the CIA is unclear. The project was given final approval in November 1948 and began the following month, just one year after the CIA’s creation in 1947.
It was a turbulent time on the international scene. In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb, and two months later Mao Zedong’s communists triumphed in China’s civil war
As U.S. scientists developed the atomic bomb during World War II, it was recognized that radioactive agents used or created in the manufacturing process had lethal potential. The government’s first public report on the bomb project, published in 1945, noted that radioactive fission products from a uranium-fueled reactor could be extracted and used “like a particularly vicious form of poison gas.”
Among the documents released to the AP — an Army memo dated Dec. 16, 1948, and labeled secret — described a crash program to develop a variety of military uses for radioactive materials. Work on a “subversive weapon for attack of individuals or small groups” was listed as a secondary priority, to be confined to feasibility studies and experiments.
The top priorities listed were:
_ 1 — Weapons to contaminate “populated or otherwise critical areas for long periods of time.”
_ 2 — Munitions combining high explosives with radioactive material “to accomplish physical damage and radioactive contamination simultaneously.”
_ 3 — Air and-or surface weapons that would spread contamination across an area to be evacuated, thereby rendering it unusable by enemy forces.
The stated goal was to produce a prototype for the No. 1 and No. 2 priority weapons by Dec. 31, 1950.
The 4th ranked priority was “munitions for attack on individuals” using radioactive agents for which there is “no means of therapy.”
“This class of munitions is proposed for use by secret agents or subversive units for lethal attacks against small groups of important individuals, e.g., during meetings of civilian or military leaders,” it said.
Assassination of foreign figures by agents of the U.S. government was not explicitly outlawed until President Gerald R. Ford signed an executive order in 1976 in response to revelations that the CIA had plotted in the 1960s to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro, including by poisoning.
The Dec. 16, 1948, memo said a lethal attack against individuals using radiological material should be done in a way that makes it impossible to trace the U.S. government’s involvement, a concept known as “plausible deniability” that is central to U.S. covert actions.
The source of the munition, the fact that an attack has been made, and the kind of attack should not be determinable, if possible,” it said. “The munition should be inconspicuous and readily transportable.” Radioactive agents were thought to be ideal for this use, the document said, because of their high toxicity and the fact that the targeted individuals could not smell, taste or otherwise sense the attack.
“It should be possible, for example, to develop a very small munition which could function unnoticeably and which would set up an invisible, yet highly lethal concentration in a room, with the effects noticeable only well after the time of attack,” it said.
“The time for lethal effects could, it is believed, be controlled within limits by the amount of radioactive agent dispersed. The toxicities are such that should relatively high concentrations be required for early lethal effects, on a weight basis, even such concentrations may be found practicable.”
Tom Bielefeld, a Harvard physicist who has studied radiological weapons issues, said that while he had never heard of this project, its technical aims sounded feasible.
Bielefeld noted that polonium, the radioactive agent used to kill Litvinenko in November 2006, has just the kind of features that would be suitable for the lethal mission described in the Dec. 16 memo.
Barton Bernstein, a Stanford history professor who has done extensive research on the U.S. military’s radiological warfare efforts, said he did not believe this aspect had previously come to light.
“This is one of those items that surprises us but should not shock us, because in the Cold War all kinds of ways of killing people, in all kinds of manners — inhumane, barbaric and even worse — were periodically contemplated at high levels in the American government in what was seen as a just war against a hated and hateful enemy,” Bernstein said.
The project was run by the Army Chemical Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, and supervised by a now-defunct agency called the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. The project’s first chief was Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, the Army’s head of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs. The radiological project was approved by Groves’ successor, Maj. Gen. Kenneth D. Nichols. The released documents were in files of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project held by the National Archives.
Among the officials copied in on the Dec. 16 memo were Herbert Scoville, Jr., then the technical director of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and later the CIA’s deputy director for research, and Samuel T. Cohen, a physicist with RAND Corp. who had worked on the Manhattan Project.
The initial go-ahead for the Army to pursue its radiological weapons project was given in May 1948, a point in U.S. history, following the successful use of two atomic bombs against Japan to end World War II, when the military was eager to explore the implications of atomic science for the future of warfare.
In a July 1948 memo outlining the program’s intent, before specifics had received final approval, a key focus was on long-lasting contamination of large land areas where residents would be told that unless the areas were abandoned they probably would die from radiation within one to 10 years.
“It is thought that this is a new concept of warfare, with results that cannot be predicted,” it said.
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Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100900295.html
Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action By President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert
Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD.
Major, retired, U.S. Army
former Director, U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project
July 23, 2007
I have served our nation in the military since 1967 during Vietnam, during Desert Storm, during planning for OEF / OIF, and during many other operations. As an Army officer I was tasked by name by General Schwartzkopf to clean up the friendly fire mess caused by uranium munitions during Desert Storm. Consequently, based on my-our team reports I was recalled to active duty as the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project director to develop congressionally and Pentagon mandated but currently ignored Depleted uranium munitions operations training, currently ignored U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 specifying environmental remediation procedures, and currently ignored soldier common task training – Task number: 031-503-1017 “RESPOND TO DEPLETED URANIUM/LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS (DULLRAM) HAZARDS”, STP 21-1- SMCT: Soldiers Manual of Common Tasks, Headquarters Department of the Army, Washington, D.C.. Consequently I became exposed, ill, and now fight along with over 400,000 other ill, wounded, and injured veterans – http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWVIS_May2007.pdf – to obtain prompt and effective medical care from the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Therefore I must provide this call for action “my story” to ensure that all military personnel and their families know of the adverse health risks, environmental problems, and mandatory but ignored actions associated with the use of uranium weapons. What I have learned, observed, and recommend to be completed follows: The delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States and their use by Israel against Lebanese targets has resulted in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the middle east. Israeli tank gunners are also using depleted uranium tank rounds as photographs verify. [see photo link below]
Today, U.S., British, and now Israeli military personnel are using illegal uranium munitions- America’s and England’s own “dirty bombs” while U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, and British Ministry of Defence officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material – depleted uranium.
The use of uranium weapons is absolutely unacceptable, and a crime against humanity. Consequently the citizens of the world and all governments must force cessation of uranium weapons use. I must demand that Israel now provide medical care to all DU casualties in Lebanon and clean up all DU contamination.
U.S. and British officials have arrogantly refused to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care to “all” exposed individuals. Reference: Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties, DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, Medical Management of Army personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU) Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command 29 April 2004, and section 2-5 of U.S. Army Regulation 700-48. Israeli officials must not do so now.
They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive Contamination as required by Army Regulation- AR 700-48: “Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities” (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002) and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin- TB 9-1300-278: “Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium” (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., JULY 1996). Specifically section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation-AR 700-48 dated September 16, 2002 requires that:
(1) “Military personnel “identify, segregate, isolate, secure, and label all RCE” (radiologically contaminated equipment).
(2) “Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible.”
(3) “Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment” and
(4) “All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM 700-48” (Note: Maximum exposure limits are specified in Appendix F).
DOD leaders are not showing the DU training tapes to military personnel. These three video tapes: (1) “Depleted Uranium Hazard Awareness”, (2) “Contaminated and Damaged Equipment Management”, and (3) “Operation of the AN/PDR 77 Radiac Set” are essential to understanding the hazards from the use of uranium weapons and management of uranium weapons contamination. DOD leaders must show these tapes to all military personnel involved in the use of uranium weapons and the consequent management of uranium contamination.
The previous and current use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment, and releases of industrial, medical, research facility radioactive materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures.
Therefore, decontamination must be completed as required by U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 and should include releases of all radioactive materials resulting from military operations.
The extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination is not limited to combat zones in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan but includes facilities and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested including Vieques; Puerto Rico; Colonie, New York; Concord, MA; Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana; and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Therefore medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions. Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay.
I am amazed that fifteen years after was I asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War 1 and over ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. I am dismayed that Department of Defense and Department of Energy officials and representatives continue personal attacks aimed to silence or discredit those of us who are demanding that medical care be provided to all DU casualties and that environmental remediation is completed in compliance with U.S. Army Regulation 700-48. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions is illegal – http://www.traprockpeace.org/karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf – and just does not even pass the common sense test and according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS, is a dirty bomb. DHS issued “dirty bomb” response guidelines, http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html , on January 3, 2006 for incidents within the United States but ignore DOD use of uranium weapons and existing DOD regulations.
These guidelines specifically state that: “Characteristics of RDD and IND Incidents: A radiological incident is defined as an event or series of events, deliberate or accidental, leading to the release, or potential release, into the environment of radioactive material in sufficient quantity to warrant consideration of protective actions.
Use of an RDD or IND is an act of terror that produces a radiological incident.” Thus the use of uranium munitions is “an act or terror” as defined by DHS. Finally continued compliance with the infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum that was issued to ensure continued use of uranium munitions can not be justified.
In conclusion: the President of the United States- George W. Bush, the Prime Minister of Great Britain-Tony Blair, and the Prime Minister of Israel Olmert must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions- their own “dirty bombs”- resulting in adverse health and environmental effects. President Bush,
Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert should order:
1. medical care for all casualties,
2. thorough environmental remediation,
3. immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand compliance with medical care and environmental remediation requirements,
4. and stop the already illegal the use (UN finding) of depleted uranium munitions.
References- these references are copies the actual regulations and orders and other pertinent official documents:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/twomemos.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium_regs.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html
Click to access karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
http://cryptome.org/dhs010306.txt
Photo by David Silverman (Getty Images ) Image 71440735 http://
editorial.gettyimages.com
See also http://www.traprockpeace.org/keith_baverstock_23june05.htm
and generally for resources on DU:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/depleted_uranium.html
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2007-11-08 18:39
Five killed in US helicopter crash
Aircraft was on training flight from Aviano base
(ANSA) – Treviso, November 8 – Five American soldiers were killed on Thursday in a helicopter crash involving a Blackhawk chopper from the Aviano United States Air Force base in northeastern Italy.
The US army helicopter, with 11 people aboard, was on a training mission which involved embarking and disembarking on the pebbly bank of the River Piave near the village of Santa Lucia di Piave.
According to Italian rescue services, the blades of the helicopter touched the ground during a tight turning manoeuvre, causing the aircraft to crash and burst into flames.
The alarm was raised by motorists who saw the accident from a motorway bridge about 300 metres from the river bank where the helicopter came down.
Four of the people aboard were killed instantly and a fifth died of his wounds in hospital. The other six people on board were all injured, two of them seriously, and are now in local hospitals. Prosecutors in Treviso cordoned off the crash site, which is at least a kilometre from the nearest houses, and have opened an enquiry to see whether anyone has criminal responsibility for the disaster. US Air Force experts were also dispatched to the site to study the wreckage.
If it is confirmed that all 11 people aboard the helicopter were American, US authorities could ask Italy to relinquish its jurisdiction in the case.
Italian Defence Minister Arturo Parisi sent condolences to his US counterpart Robert Gates and messages were also sent by local government leaders.
There are reportedly eight Blackhawk helicopters at Aviano, which is one of the biggest American military bases outside the United States. The twin-turbine helicopters, which can carry up to 18 people, are generally used for training purposes and to support the activity of US troops at the Ederle military base near Vicenza.
Aircraft from Aviano, which has been used by US forces since 1954, have been involved in a few serious accidents over the years.
The worst was in 1998 when a Prowler fighter plane on a training flight severed the cables carrying a cable car up slopes at the Cermis ski resort. Twenty people were killed.
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2008-10-06 13:04
US base ‘referendum’ splits city
Both sides claim win after unofficial Vicenza poll
(ANSA) – Vicenza, October 6 – An unofficial referendum against the planned expansion of a US air base in Vicenza has left the city split.
Opponents of the plan hailed the 95% No vote on Sunday but supporters derided the low turn-out and called for the resignation of Mayor Achille Variati.
Variati decided to go ahead with the informal poll in the face of a state court’s ban on an official referendum on expanding the Dal Molin base.
Despite its lack of legal force, the mayor hailed the poll as ”an extraordinary example of democracy”.
”It shows how wrong it is not to let people have a say in things that affect them,” he said.
Cinzia Bottene, a city councillor and member of the No Dal Molin Committee against the plan, said ”the referendum was a great response to the authoritarians who want to impose something on the local community”.
But the Yes Dal Molin Committee pointed out that the 28.5% turn-out meant fewer people voted on Sunday than they did for the mayoral election two months ago.
The committee also criticised the funds spent on what it called a ”useless” consultation.
”Despite strong campaigning from the No committee, backed by the mayor with the investment of significant amounts of money,” said No Committee member Roberto Cattaneo, ”fewer citizens voted on Sunday than those who backed Variati in the municipal elections”.
”Out of intellectual honesty, he should resign,” Cattaneo added, calling the mayor’s drive against the expansion plan ”isolationist and extremist”.
Opponents of the base were dismayed last week when the referendum was banned by Italy’s highest administrative tribunal, but then they decided to hold it anyway.
The Council of State said a referendum would be ”superfluous” because publicly elected officials had already ruled on the planned purchase of land for the expansion.
The referendum asked residents whether they thought the city government should acquire the land at the Dal Molin base to stop the expansion and maintain the area’s ”environmental integrity”.
Variati was elected this spring on a platform opposed to the base being expanded to accommodate 2,100 US soldiers and thus unite the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is currently divided between Vicenza and Germany.
The Dal Molin airfield is across town from the main Ederle military base that hosts the headquarters of the Southern European Task Force (SETF), which has been in Italy since the early 1950s and includes a rapid reaction force that has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month the Council of State overturned a regional court’s ruling against the expansion of the base.
Upholding an appeal from the Italian government, the Council of State said the TAR of Veneto, which came out against the expansion on June 20, had no remit for political questions involving Italy and the United States.
It also stressed that there was no legal requirement to sound out the local population, which is believed to be largely against the expansion.
The Council of State said there was no ”hard evidence” for the kind of environmental damage protesters claimed the expansion of the Dal Molin base would bring.
Mayor Variati said at the time that the ruling would have no effect on the planned referendum.
”I think it is the Americans who will be most embarrassed by this verdict because they are caught between a government that says ‘full steam ahead’ and a local population which has hosted them in the most friendly fashion for 50 years and just wants to have its say,” he said.
Opponents to the project argue that the expansion would have a ”devastating effect” on the city’s urban fabric and the surrounding environment, with a high risk of damaging water tables.
Other arguments against the expansion include the possibility that it would make Vicenza a target in the event of a military conflict or terrorist attack.
Concern has also been voiced about the impact an expanded base would have on a city which is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, boasting a host of buildings and villas by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
There are other local groups who are in favor of expanding the base because of the added business it would bring to the town.
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Italianen bestormen Amerikaanse basis op Sicilië
Van de redactie
Meer dan 1000 mensen hebben afgelopen vrijdag deelgenomen aan een protestbijeenkomst tegen de aanwezigheid van een Amerikaanse basis bij Niscemi in het zuiden van Sicilië.
Ruim honderd demonstranten haalden de omheining neer en drongen de basis binnen. Negen demonstranten beklommen de antenne op de basis, aldus het Italiaanse persagentschap ANSA. Daarvoor probeerde de politie tevergeefs met traangas de demonstranten van de basis verwijderd te houden. [Zie hier de reportage op YouTube] Al eerder, in maart en april van dit jaar, was het tot protesten tegen de aanwezigheid van de basis gekomen.
In Niscemi is een militaire basis met Radar- en zendapparatuur van het nieuwe Amerikaanse satellietcommunicatiesysteem ‘Mobile User Objective System’ (MUOS). De demonstranten van NO MUOS beschuldigen het satellietcommunicatiesysteem van het bedreigen van de wereldvrede, het milieu en de gezondheid van de plaatselijke bevolking en verlangen de onmiddellijke stopzetting van de bouwactiviteiten, aldus de Italiaanse krant Gazetta des Sud.
Essentieel voor NAVO-operaties
De radarinstallatie is nog niet geheel afgebouwd. Slechts twee van de zes satellieten zijn in gereedheid en in een baan om de aarde gebracht. De satellietschotels hebben een diameter van 20 meter. De Italiaanse minister van Defensie verklaarde dat het systeem ‘essentieel is voor NAVO-operaties in het Middellandse Zeegebied en daarmee ook voor de nationale veiligheid’. De vestiging van de basis is in 2001 in een bilaterale overeenkomst tussen de VS en Italië onder Berlusconi vastgelegd. In 2006, onder premier Prodi, werd het verdrag geratificeerd en is met de bouw begonnen.
[1] http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2013/08/11/aufstand-gegen-obama-italiener-stuermen-militaerbasis-in-sizilien/
Zie ook de internationale NO MUOS Facebook pagina
De Waarheid.nu 11-08-2013
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Protests in Sicily continue against planned US satellite system base
On August 11, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in the southern Sicilian city of Niscemi against US plans to build a satellite communication system.
Niscemi already hosts 46 US military satellites and the new base is set to include a large radar and tens of radio antennas. The Mobile User Objective System (Muos) is being constructed by the US Navy.
The protests are the culmination of years of campaigning by residents who have claimed there has been a rise in health problems caused by radiation from the US operations.
In March, around 10,000 residents marched to oppose the proposed ultra-high-frequency satellite network.
Last year, the nowitaly web site reported that according to a study conducted by physicists Massimo Zucchetti and Massimo Coraddu of the Polytechnic University of Turin, the “electromagnetic waves emanating from Muos will spread out over 135 kilometres, with serious risk of causing, in the short and long term, severe degenerative disease in the population, such as cancer and leukaemia.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/16/wkrs-a16.html
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