Helen Caldicott On Donahue:
msnbc.com
HELEN CALDICOTT, PRESIDENT, NPRI: It’s possible, with this administration talking about fighting and winning nuclear war, that within the next 2 to 10 years, we might all be dead.
DONAHUE: In 1983. You:re talking to Bryant Gumbel on the “Today” show. Over 30 years ago, she gave up her practice as a pediatrician to warn of the threat of nuclear war. Celebrities and people on the street were roused to act. And it appeared the cold war was over, but Helen Caldicott is back to tell the world about the new war facing us. She’s currently the president and founder of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute and the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Your book is titled “The New Nuclear Danger.”
The cold war is over, Helen! What are you worrying about? The cold war is over. Tell me why it’s worse.
CALDICOTT: The cold war is not over. The Berlin wall came down. The communists are gone. But the weapons are still in place in Russia and America, 2,500 on hair-trigger alert on either side ready to go with a press of the button. On September 11, we were on the highest state of hair-trigger alert Defcon 2 from Defcon 5. And we were 10 seconds from nuclear war in 1995, when Yeltsin nearly pressed the button.
DONAHUE: You...
CALDICOTT: So we hang on a hair-trigger alert every minute of every day still.
DONAHUE: Yes. But certainly, it looked now as though things are a little cooler on the matter, except, of course, for terrorism. We’re terrified of that. And I assume that’s a part of your message, as well.
CALDICOTT: But the foundation underpinning terrorism and the war in Iraq, where I think there’s a 50-50 chance they’ll use nuclear weapons, the Pentagon will-Israel could use nuclear weapons back on Hussein, if he uses scuds. Pakistan and India could use nuclear weapons. Any situation like that could trigger a thermonuclear holocaust between the superpowers, create nuclear winter and the end of life on earth.
DONAHUE: Yeah. Right. You know, if we think our national survival is at stake-if we believe our national survival is at stake, we will drop the big one on somebody. We can grant no less freedom to any of the other members of the family of nuclear nations.
CALDICOTT: People in glass houses can’t throw stones.
DONAHUE: Well, but we-we thought that we sort of had put this aside and that...
CALDICOTT: Yes.
DONAHUE: We also have the issue of nuclear power, domestic nuclear power and terrorism.
CALDICOTT: Well, the terrorists don’t need nuclear bombs anymore, do they? They’ve got 103 of them deployed around the country, ready to be broken into or cooling packs blocked and the like, and you get meltdowns. So all the nuclear power plants are potentially nuclear weapons, which would devastate and kill thousands of people, make thousands of men sterile. Thousands of women would stop menstruating. Thousands of babies born with tiny, little heads, microcephaly. Thousands of cases of leukemia and cancer. That’s what nuclear power means. And...
DONAHUE: That’s what could happen if...
(CROSSTALK)
CALDICOTT: ... are starting to understand that.
DONAHUE: If a plane would hit one of our domestic nuclear power plants, you’re saying?
CALDICOTT: Sure, or if they cut off the external electricity supply.
I was at Indian Point the other day, having my photo taken by Conde Nast. And they said if you just drive a motor boat into the cooling pumps here loaded with explosives...
DONAHUE: Long Island you’re talking about?
CALDICOTT: Yeah, both Indian Point reactors would melt down. Manhattan would be totally devastated if the wind was blowing in that direction. No one would get out. And most people would die of acute radiation illness, with their hair falling out, vomiting and bleeding to death, and cancer and leukemia. That’s what nuclear power means, Phil.
DONAHUE: How are you doing, in terms of-are you being marginalized? People don’t like apocryphal messages. You can’t tell a kid, for example, “Don’t have sex, you’ll get AIDS and your head’ll fall off!” It just doesn’t work. These scenarios, which-I believe you. I believe they’re true. I don’t think you’re fooling anybody. But aren’t you-are you speaking to a lot of empty chairs these days?
CALDICOTT: No, I’m speaking to thousands of people who are so relieved that I’m saying this. And they say, “Thank God you’re saying it.” People call out from the audience, “How do we get rid of Bush?” I don’t think the polls are accurate. And I think people are deeply concerned underneath, but scared to admit they’re concerned.
DONAHUE: Well, you say “How do we get rid of Bush?” I mean, Clinton was hardly your poster boy.
CALDICOTT: No, Clinton-Clinton’s legacy is the weapons still remain, Phil. He didn’t get rid of them. We’ve got to have abolition of nuclear weapons with Russia because they’re friendly now. Why is America targeting Russia with nuclear weapons and vice versa? Why has America still got a policy to fight and win a nuclear war against Russia, which would create nuclear winter and cover the earth with a cloud so thick it blocks out the sun for a year, a short Ice Age? Why?
DONAHUE: You heard us talking about Iraq. Iraq’s got-they’re making the big one! They’re making it! They’re making it! They’re coming after us!
CALDICOTT: It’s a lie. There’s no objective evidence that Iraq has nuclear weapons, chemical or biological. You’ve had Scott Rotter on all the time, the U.N. inspector. It’s paranoia because there’s a lot of oil in Iraq, right? And that guy, Paul-what’s his name?
DONAHUE: Paul Wolfowitz.
CALDICOTT: ... Wolfowitz. It’s his policy alone to go into Iraq. Why? I mean, what happened to him in his childhood? Why is he so paranoid? Why does he want to go and kill thousands of innocent people in Iraq? You can’t kill people!
DONAHUE: Helen Caldicott, president and founder of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute-yes, you do have a Web site. I’m pleased to call it to your attention. We are out of time. Thank you.
CALDICOTT: Web site, nuclearpolicy.org. |
