Citizen Inspections:

On March 5, a team of seven "United Nations citizens" were arrested at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in California after demanding access to the lab to search for weapons of mass destruction.  The citizens team demanded "free and unfettered access" to the entire lab operations.

They carried a recent open letter signed by fifteen prominent U.S. lawyers, including former Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, stating that "there is a right and responsibility for U.S. citizens to inspect such facilities to determine whether their operation is a violation of international and domestic law."

The team members carried U.N. flags reminiscent of UNSCOM personnel in Iraq.  Their stated intent was to draw attention to the hypocrisy which enables the five U.N. Security Council members to possess nuclear weapons of mass destruction while condemning other nations for developing such weapons, and to make a public display of opposition to war as a solution to our global problems. They were cited and released after telling officials that "citizen inspection teams" are visiting nuclear facilities all across the U.S. and the world, and that another team would visit the Lab at a later date.  Prosecutors have yet to pursue the charges.

That later date was March 26, when coordinated inspection teams arrived at Livermore and the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico.  Both teams included nuclear scientists and other notables, and both took no action to provoke arrest and thereby attempt to bring the issues into court.

The 30-member Livermore team included former nuclear weapons designer Ted Taylor.  They were met by lab officials and a row of police at the gate who refused access even to areas normally open to the public.  The team then dispersed to areas along the perimeter fence near three particular buildings they intended to investigate.  Soil samples were collected in a manner similar to a process that detected plutonium in a nearby park several years ago.

For more information contact  Tri-Valley CAREs, 5720 East Ave. #116, Livermore, CA 94550, (510) 443-7148, e-mail: marylia@igc.org

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last updated July 10 1998