http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/07/14/a-stark-nuclear-warning/

A Stark Nuclear Warning
Jerry Brown
JULY 14, 2016 ISSUE

My Journey at the Nuclear Brink
by William J. Perry, with a foreword by George P. Shultz
Stanford Security Studies, 234 pp., $85.00; $24.95 (paper)

I know of no person who understands the science and politics of modern weaponry better than William J. Perry, the US Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997. When a man of such unquestioned experience and intelligence issues the stark nuclear warning that is central to his recent memoir, we should take heed. Perry is forthright when he says: “Today, the danger of some sort of a nuclear catastrophe is greater than it was during the Cold War and most people are blissfully unaware of this danger.”1 He also tells us that the nuclear danger is “growing greater every year” and that even a single nuclear detonation “could destroy our way of life.”

In clear, detailed but powerful prose, Perry’s new book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, tells the story of his seventy-year experience of the nuclear age. Beginning with his firsthand encounter with survivors living amid “vast wastes of fused rubble” in the aftermath of World War II, his account takes us up to today when Perry is on an urgent mission to alert us to the dangerous nuclear road we are traveling.

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In his foreword to the book, George P. Shultz describes Perry as a man of “absolute integrity.” His record is remarkable: Ph.D. in mathematics, vast technical training and experience in high-tech business, management of research and weapons acquisition as an undersecretary of defense under President Carter, and deputy secretary and then secretary of defense under Bill Clinton.

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No one I have known, or have even heard of, has the management experience and the technical knowledge that William Perry brings to the subject of nuclear danger. Few have his wisdom and integrity. So why isn’t anyone paying attention to him? Why is fear of a nuclear catastrophe far from the minds of most Americans? And why does almost all of official Washington disagree with him and live in nuclear denial? Perry himself may provide the answer:

Our chief peril is that the poised nuclear doom, much of it hidden beneath the seas and in remote badlands, is too far out of the global public consciousness. Passivity shows broadly. Perhaps this is a matter of defeatism and its cohort, distraction. Perhaps for some it is largely a most primal human fear of facing the “unthinkable.” For others, it might be a welcoming of the illusion that there is or might be an acceptable missile defense against a nuclear attack. And for many it would seem to be the keeping of faith that nuclear deterrence will hold indefinitely—that leaders will always have accurate enough instantaneous knowledge, know the true context of events, and enjoy the good luck to avoid the most tragic of military miscalculations.

While many complain of the obvious dysfunction in Washington, few see the incomparably greater danger of “nuclear doom” because it is hidden and out of public consciousness. Despite an election year filled with commentary and debate, no one is discussing the major issues that trouble Perry. It is another example of the rigid conformity that often dominates public discourse. Long ago, I saw this in the Vietnam War and later in the invasion of Iraq: intelligent people were doing mindless—and catastrophic—things. “Sleepwalking” is the term historians now use for the stupidities that got European leaders into World War I and for the mess they unleashed at Versailles. And sleepwalking still continues as NATO and Russia trade epithets and build their armies and Moscow and Washington modernize their nuclear overkill. A new cold war.

Fortunately, Bill Perry is not sleepwalking and he is telling us, in My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, to wake up before it is too late. Anyone can begin by reading his book.

http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/jerry-brown/

Jerry Brown is Governor of California. (July 20016)

Jupiter: Into the Unknown (NASA Juno Mission Trailer)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
190,302 views
Published on Jun 15, 2016

Secrets lie deep within Jupiter, shrouded in the solar system's strongest magnetic field and most lethal radiation belts.

On July 4, 2016, NASA's Juno spacecraft will plunge into uncharted territory, entering orbit around the gas giant and passing closer than any spacecraft before.

Juno will see Jupiter for what it really is, but first it must pass the trial of orbit insertion.

For more information: http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu

http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2016/06/12/orlando-shooter-worked-g4s/

Orlando shooter worked for G4S

The Orlando nightclub shooter worked for G4S, one of the world’s largest security companies, according to multiple news reports. WPBF, a TV station in Palm Beach County, Fla., where the company is based, quoted a statement issued by G4S that said Omar Mateen had worked for the company since Sept. 10, 2007. “We are cooperating fully with all law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, as they conduct their investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the friends, families and people affected by this unspeakable tragedy,” the statement said in part.

G4S, formerly known as Wackenhut, was a major security provider at the government facilities in Oak Ridge until it lost its contracts in the wake of the 2012 break-in by protesters at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Mateen reportedly lived in Fort Pierce, Fla., and there is no indication he was ever involved in any Oak Ridge-related activities.

Wackenhut provided security at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge facilities, beginning in 2000. Its security contract at Y-12 was terminated after the security breach, and B&W Y-12 — the managing contractor at the time — absorbed the security duties as part of its work.

G4S/Wackenhut also lost its contract to provide security at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Federal Building in 2013 when DOE awarded the job to National Strategic Protective Services.

http://www.g4s.us/en-US/Industries/Nuclear/

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