Arizona Radiation Net Complete

Civil Defense Perspectives January 2009, Vol. 25 No. 2

When Stephen Jones asked Arizona firefighters whether they had a plan for nuclear attack, they answered, “No.” Any instruments for measuring radiation? With few exceptions: “No.” That is no longer the situation in Arizona–in any jurisdiction that lacks an obstructive bureaucracy.The latest government Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation, released Jan 19, 2009, confirms that local jurisdictions will be on their own: “There will be no significant Federal response at the scene for 24 hours and the full extent of Federal assets will not be available for up to 72 hours” (Homeland Security Council Interagency Policy Coordination Subcommittee for Preparedness & Response to Radiological and Nuclear Threats).

Yet virtually all lifesaving measures will have to be undertaken immediately. And there is no indication in the new Administraton’s Homeland Security agenda of new federal assets to respond to nuclear detonation–only aspirations for a “nuclear-free world.”

Thus, Physicians for Civil Defense has created a radiological monitoring net covering the state of Arizona, a model that can be emulated throughout the U.S. It rests on the back-up default plan for situations like now, in which there is no plan–the situation foreseen by visionaries like Cresson Kearny and Conrad Chester, who created and tested the expedient Nuclear War Survival Skills (NWSS) methods, such as the KFM (Kearny fallout meter), for use by ordinary Americans.

The Arizona Nuclear War Survival Skills Tour

Our crew–Stephen Jones, Kevin McDonald, and Logan Connor–drove 5,000 miles, visited about 145 fire stations, photographed more than 400 firefighters with NWSS, sent press releases to 50 newspapers, and did personal interviews with 20 reporters. Expecting to have many doors slammed in their faces, this happened only once outside major urban areas; response was overwhelmingly positive. Our volunteers were asked on the spot to participate in ongoing training sessions, and even to return to do a special session.

The message is simple and compelling: “It works. You can do it.” Firefighters instantly connected with Steve’s teaching tool: an Indian weather stone. The stone hangs from a frame by a leather strip, with instructions: “If the stone is wet, it’s raining. If the stone is white, it’s snowing. If the stone is moving, the wind is blowing.”

If the leaves of the KFM are moving together, there’s radiation. If they’re not moving, there is no radiation danger.

Radiation becomes an understandable, easily measurable natural phenomenon, rather than a terrifying demon.

The first 35 pages of the manual explain nuclear weapons effects, essential protective measures, and the radiation decay curve (7/10 rule). Devastating as nuclear weapons are, people outside the lethal zone can survive–if they do not panic.

The Emergency Nuclear Attack Kit provided to each jurisdiction contains: the manual (NWSS), a factory-made KFM stored in a small paint can with extra silica gel, a plexiglass charging device, and instructions for building a KFM; a zip-lock bag with everything needed to make a KFM except the tin can; and a NukAlert with instruction manual. Firefighters are asked to download and print out their own copies of NWSS.

Steve Jones and Jane Orient previously distributed NukAlerts to a number of fire districts in Arizona, as well as many in other states who requested them. For two years now, the Marana fire district has had a NukAlert on a key chain in every engine–and firefighters are proud to show them. We concluded, however, that a change in strategy is needed.

The foundation of the plan has to be NWSS. There are not enough NukAlerts–or other comparable electronic instruments–in existence to supply the need, and it will be impossible to manufacture enough quickly. The KFM is America’s main instrument. NukAlerts complement the KFM and will do the most good in the hands of first responders who are part of a regional monitoring net. Firefighters in Yuma can now call Window Rock, San Luis, or any other Arizona town and find out the radiation level on the ground.

Videographer Kevin McDonald created slide shows of the Arizona tour and videotapes of training sessions, which can be viewed at www.physiciansforcivildefense.org. You can also access them on www.YouTube.com. Search on “Physicians for Civil Defense” or “roadman911.” A long-range project is to incorporate these and other materials into a civil defense documentary for wide distribution.

The total cost of the 5-week tour was about $100,000, if one considers retail cost of the donated materials. We thank KI4U for NukAlerts, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine for the NWSS manuals, KI4U and Doctors for Disaster Preparedness for cash donations, and others.

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What Next?

There are about 23,000 jurisdictions in the U.S. small enough to be receptive to receiving a NWSS emergency kit. It would cost from $8 million to $12 million to supply each with a kit, depending on distribution method. We would like to start by buying up the existing inventory of KFMs and NukAlerts, at a price that would generate new production, so that we could supply a kit to every jurisdiction that requested one for firefighters, emergency managers, or law enforcement. We intend to start there, to the extent that funds are donated.

In the meantime, we will refine our tools to improve the self-training nature of the program. Americans need to make their own KFMs–the kit is a model and an incentive.

America should have a real civil defense program, with well-stocked blast shelters. NWSS could eventually spark this, or at least a revival of a shelter program like that in Huntsville, Alabama. In the meantime, it is the only feasible starting point that we can see. It could save millions directly, and indirectly by helping to keep 5 million essential workers on the job.

A small investment in information and simple technology could potentially mean the ability of America to recover from a devastating, increasingly likely nuclear blow. The more kits there are in your region, the safer your family is. Contact us if you want to help us supply your state or area: 520.325.2689.

 

50% Chance of Nuclear Detonation?

A nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. is a better than even bet in the next 10 years, stated Graham Allison, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense. The illicit economy for narcotics and illegal alien trafficking has built up a vast infrastructure that could be exploited to deliver a nuclear weapon. Former president Bush, vice president Cheney, and the 9/11 Commis­sion all concluded that a nuclear terrorist attack was not only the nation’s worst nightmare, but a virtual inevitability.

A study by the Center for Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia concluded that a concerted effort to teach civilians what to do could save countless lives (World NetDaily 7/6/07).

 

Russia Combat Ready

According to President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking to the Federal Assembly Nov 5, “Our Armed Forces have been restored to combat potential to a considerable degree.” Three Russian missile regiments will not be disbanded as previously decided; the Iskander missile system will be deployed to Kaliningrad to “neutralize” NATO deployment of ABMs in Poland; and ABM bases will be electronically jammed (J.R. Nyquist, Financial Sense.com 11/14/08).

 

A Credible Deterrent?

The week before the November 2008 election, defense secretary Robert Gates called for putting the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program into operation, noting that the nation’s current arsenal–mostly produced in the 1970s and 1980s–may be becoming unreliable. This appears to be at odds with Obama’s promise to develop “no new nuclear weapons” (Time 1/26/09).

Recent U.S. incidents have focused attention on the neglect of nuclear forces, and a lack of understanding of nuclear deterrence at the Pentagon. “If adversaries believe the U.S. deterrent is weak, they might be tempted to use nukes against us or threaten to do so” (Wall St J 1/24-25/09). In addition, former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger notes that if the 30-plus countries relying on the U.S. nuclear umbrella lose confidence, some might decide to acquire their own nuclear arsenal. That’s precisely the opposite of the nuclear-free-world argument that others would disarm if the U.S. did so.

 

Food Storage Tips

Sealing food in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers for long-term storage has had disappointing results because the bags tend to spring leaks–or rodents might gnaw a hole in them. Thus it is best to place your bags in a plastic bucket with a lid. The use of an iron to seal the bag is shown at www.yout­ube. com/watch?v=fk9b0dAtJ80. Note that wheat and beans stored in this way will be edible long term but will not sprout.

 

A Sign of Hard Times

An estimated 40,000 people came to a Colorado family farm on a single day to collect free potatoes, carrots, and leeks. The family decided to give away produce because they had a lot left over after the fall festival, and any day a deep freeze could kill it off. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people had been expected, spread out over several days (Denver Post 11/23/08).

 

A Response to a Global Warmist

“Reflections” on an interview with Jonathan Overpeck, KUAT, Arizona Illustrated, Jan 20, 2009

The global warming scare will change your life if the alarmists prevail. They demand policies that would shut down half the electricity in the United States. Coal-generated power cannot be replaced by windmills and solar panels, no matter how much of our land we carpet with these expensive eyesores and their transmission lines.

To force you to reduce your “carbon footprint,” the UN wants the power to keep you from driving your car, heating or cooling your home, or even having a baby. Enron-style cap-and-trade schemes, or a carbon tax, would enrich tax collectors and companies like Al Gore’s–and drive most Americans into poverty. These are not modest, sensible insurance policies; these are economy-wrecking, freedom-ending, radical schemes to empower tyrannical world government.

Do we have to do it to save the Planet? The idea that human beings can influence climate is not new. In the Middle Ages, thousands of women were burned at the stake as witches to protect against bad weather. Now we don’t have witches but we do have Al Gore’s movie showing a cartoon of wicked greenhouse gas demons beating up on poor Mr. Sunbeam.

The earth is warmer now than in 1776, and the temperature is now close to the 3,000-year average. The weather was much nicer during the Medieval Warm Period, when vineyards thrived in England.

Human use of coal, oil, and natural gas has increased steadily since around 1900, but the slope of the temperature curve since 1776 hasn’t changed. There have been fluctuations in the temperature curve, and those correlate very well not with CO2, but with solar activity.

CO2 is a very weak greenhouse gas. Its possible effect on temperature is negligible. The important effect of the increased level in the atmosphere is that the Earth is significantly greener. CO2 is Nature’s recycling molecule. It is plant food. Restricting CO2 means starving plants, and thus animals and human beings.

Dr. Overpeck and his UN IPCC colleagues didn’t predict that global warming would take a break starting around 1998. But the snow in Baghdad and other record lows are “just weather,” they say. We should still trust their computer models: Catastrophic warming will soon resume, unless we repent and stop using affordable, available fuels.

Some 32,000 American scientists, plus increasing numbers of former IPCC scientists disagree with Gore and Overpeck. The global warmers’ answer is that if you disagree with them, you’re not really a scientist. Pay no attention to the evidence–or to the man behind the curtain, they say: just believe in the Wizard. Jane M. Orient, M.D.

 

Reflections on Terrorism in Mumbai

From a posting by Butler Shaffer (LewRockwell.com/blog, 11/30/08), “How Gun Control Laws Contributed to the Mum-bai Slaughter”: After the mutiny of 1857, the British systematically disarmed the Indian masses and destroyed the means of local firearm production. Gandhi wrote: “Among the…misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.” Said the Dalai Lama: “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”

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