Dear GN Friends:

You are likely feeling as sad and worried as we are these days. The U.S. occupation in Iraq has descended into total chaos and the present situation in Lebanon, after reading the most recent article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, will probably be the prelude to an attack on Iran. Like you, we are busy locally and across our state to help organize resistance to all this madness.

The Reuters news service reported in mid-August that the U.S. is now supplying Israel with advanced space technology systems for their war on Lebanon. That is in addition to the bunker busters, cluster bombs, and other military hardware the Pentagon is furnishing the Israeli military.

Could there be any dispute to our contention that when weapons are a nation’s #1 industrial export product, as they are in America today, that endless war is the global marketing strategy for that product line?

The fact that the U.S. is exporting weapons and violence globally should underscore the need for us all to be making a public call for conversion of the military-industrial complex. In all of the public work of the Global Network these days the absolute need for conversion is a key element in our message. Why can’t we build public rail systems, solar power, and windmills with our tax dollars instead of weapons for endless war?

We do have some good news. Our effort to coordinate the space issues track at the World Peace Forum in Vancouver last June was a great success. Many key leaders from the Global Network were able to attend the event and participated in most of the space workshops that we delivered. The attendance at our workshops was quite strong and included people from all around the world.

Another important positive development has been the announcement by NASA (Aviation Week & Space Technology, July 17, 2006) that “Budget and technical realities have led NASA to put its once-ambitious space nuclear power plans on a slow track, but developments in solar power generation should allow new scientific probes beyond Mars to operate without nuclear energy.” NASA is “already planning a solar-powered mission to study the atmosphere of Jupiter, and has looked at sending probes as deep into space as Neptune using only the sun’s energy for spacecraft and instrument power.”

This is a major victory for the Global Network as we have maintained since 1989, when we organized against the launch of NASA’s plutonium mission Galileo, that solar could be used instead of nuclear power in deep space. NASA long claimed that solar power in deep space would not work. It is now clear that sustained public pressure, in large part organized by the Global Network, was a factor in NASA’s decision to begin a shift.

We must recognize that plans for nuclear power in space still live, including efforts to power weapons in space. However, at the very least, this new development shows that our persistent opposition helped push NASA into doing something they long resisted – using solar power for deep space exploration. We will stay on their case.

With that said we must also acknowledge that Pentagon plans to deploy anti-satellite (ASAT) and other offensive space-based weapons is still very much on track. The Bush administration is expected to give the military the green light at any time by issuing a new policy doctrine authorizing deployment of ASATs.

This reality makes our annual Keep Space for Peace Week all the more important this October 1-8. We urge all supporters to help us by organizing local events during Keep Space for Peace Week. Demonstrations, video showings, meetings with Congress members, letters to the editor, events with speakers, church meetings, and the like will help us expand public consciousness about these issues. This year Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) is again co-sponsoring the week of events with the Global Network and is helping to promote the week of local actions worldwide within their membership. Let us know if you need any resources to help make your space week event happen.

We thank you for your on-going support and urge you to renew your membership with us for 2006. Dues for individuals and affiliated groups are on a sliding scale from $10 - $100 (pay what you can best afford within that range.) If you’ve already paid your membership dues this year we thank you and urge you to consider making a special donation to the Global Network as we approach Keep Space for Peace Week.

Best wishes to you and please, keep organizing.



Bruce K. Gagnon

Coordinator



Mary Beth Sullivan

Administrative Assistant



Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (our blog)



P.S. Donations to the Global Network are tax deductible. Contributions to the GN can also now be made on-line via the red Donate Now! button at our website. Any donor giving $75 or more will receive our new video called “Voices from the Global Network” filmed at the World Peace Forum in Vancouver.