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BULLETIN FOR THE ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

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Dr Chris Busby: Wings of Death

(1-897761-03-1)

The book compiles scientific arguments against nuclear power and nuclear testing. Written on a grant from the (Quaker) Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, it blows the whistle on the nuclear establishment, its agenda, its cover-ups, its control of the media, reproducing stolen and leaked documents, one of which shows how a nuclear power station was fabricated out of sub-standard steel to save money! In addition to its intention of bringing to the intelligent layperson an account of these issues, Wings of Death deveiops an explanation, based on current research, of the causes of cancer and even of death itself. It suggests ways based on recent research in cell-biology of defending oneself against cancer and of living to a great age.

The book and the research that it describes has been reviewed extensively including ariicles in the British newspapers The Guardian and New Statesman. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards further research in this imporant area.

Mail order from:
Green Audit Ltd., Dept. C,
38 Queen St
Aberystwyth, Wales SY23 1PU, UK;
Tel.: (44-970) 611 226
e-mail: chriscbusby@gn.apc.org (Dr Chris Busby)
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Peter Hounam and Steve McQuillan: The Micro-Nukes Conspiracy - Mandela's Nuclear Nightmare (Faber & Faber, London, Sept 1995). 300pp.

When President de Klerk announced in March 1993 the abandonment by S.Africa of its tiny nuclear weapons arsenal (6 warheads), most obsesrvers assumed they were being told the whole story. Nothing could be further from the truth, according to an alarming new book published by two respeded journalists. Their sensational report makes a number of disturbing allegations.

It would appear that S.Africa had a far more advanced nuclear weapons programme than it admitted. With help from the lsraelis and others, it manufactured thermonuclear weapons deliverable via the "Hento" glide-bomb/missile, intercontinental ballistic missile and a so-called "clean" bomb (advanced neutron bomb with minimal fallout) and other mini-nukes capable of being fired as shells from a howitzer-type gun. These nuclear weapons were tested in various underwater and aboveground locations during the 1970s and 1980s, and some were deployed in Angola during the conflid with Soviet- and Cuban-backed forces.

S.Africa had a sophisticated international procurement programme known as Operation Shampoo, involving Armscor and front companies and agents all over the world. Chief among its imports was the notorious and controvesial red mercury, used in nculear weapons triggers, in the "clean bomb" and for other top·secret military pulposes. A string of grisly murders were uncovered, involving arms dealers in the red mercury trade. Later S.Africa manufactured its own red mercury.

Some of the warheads not declared in the de Klerk annoucement are alleged to be under the control of one or other of the armed right wing groupings who still plan a military takeover of the country, or to use their weapons to blackmail the govemment into agreeing to a whites-only Volksstaat.

Hounam and McQuillan's claims have been rejected by Mandela. But they are far from being unsubstantial. They have had access to "deep throats" inside the some of the world's most secret installations, the S.Africa police, and technical experts such as Dr Frank Barnaby. By any account it is a very courageous and impressive piece of investigation.

The ramifications are extremely far reaching. What is extraordinaly is the almost complete silence of the media (even arms control publications) on the subject of these sensational allegations and their implications. Is it too much to suspect another conspiracy? Certainly key sections of the arms business will play down the impact of this information, since it is political dynamite. Once again they will tly to deflect the intrusive gaye of the general public into the secret worl of the weaponeers.

Colin Archer, lntemational Peace Bureau

Negotiations
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