The International Atomic Energy Agency, promoters of nuclear power (which are nothing more than slow nuclear weapons) has actually won the Nobel Peace Prize this year (2005).
The only more inappropriate winners would be the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) or the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), or perhaps the nuclear industry itself.
This award amounts to a wholehearted endorsement of nuclear power by the Nobel Committee. It amounts to a wholehearted endorsement of the lie that at most a few thousand people have died because of Chernobyl, when in fact the deaths are surely 10 or 100 times higher than the IAEA ever would admit. And the lie that nobody died because of Three Mile Island. And the lie that nobody died because of every nuclear power plant around the world — which together are creating about 50 NEW tons of nuclear waste every day, which the IAEA endorses and supports and supposedly regulates. Their idea of regulation is to allow as much nuclear material to be released into the environment as is necessary to continue the profitable operation of nuclear power plants! (This policy even has a technical term: ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable).)
This award by the Nobel Committee amounts to an endorsement of the continued creation of ever-increasing piles of dangerous, terrorist-targeted nuclear waste from nuclear power plants, whose byproduct is the very same bomb material the IAEA claims to be opposing, and has hoodwinked the world into thinking it is stopping the proliferation of.
This is an endorsement of genocide. This is an endorsement of dishonesty. This is an endorsement of the routine radioactive pollution of our environment by the nuclear industry. This is an endorsement of the destruction of the human genome. This is an endorsement of self-serving, secretive committees of insiders making vital decisions which affect us all.
This is a shame.
Ronald D. Hoffman, a computer programmer in Carlsbad, California, has written extensively about nuclear power. His essays have been translated into several different languages and published in more than a dozen countries. He can be reached at: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
CLARIFICATION
ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH
We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).
Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.
As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.
We are pleased to clarify the position.
August 17, 2005
