TheMillerCircle.org

Before communism imploded in Poland, Polish dissidents pointed out that there were so many laws governing virtually any conceivable behavior that you could be arrested and charged with something anytime and at any place. The purpose of Polish Communist law was to intimidate people into submissive behavior and invoke a state of constant fear. The behavior of the St. Paul police in their “preemptive” strikes against young people intent on protesting at the RNC, was based on a law that defense lawyers have never heard of called “conspiracy to commit riot.” Using this “law,” that lawyers argue is surely unconstitutional, but has yet to reach the courts, the police raided houses in St. Paul in swat gear with flashlights mounted on rifles, handcuffed and threw people to the floor, while the house was searched for material that might be used for making “bombs.” Search warrants were not presented until the end of the search and materials were removed from the house that included computers, literature and boxes of items of questionable relevance for the mission. Glenn Greenwald, writing in Salon, describes the raids, with video material and talks with those who were planning a protest against the RNC. The one group calls themselves “Food not Bombs” and were planning on a peaceful protest against the war and the RNC. These college-age students, though clearly shaken by the raid, said they were more determined than ever to continue with their protest activities. The lawyer who is defending those arrested during these raids has claimed that not a single act of violence or illegality has been committed by these young people.

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Amy Goodman and her two fellow producers of Democracy Now, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazarwere were released from jail. A video covering the arrest can be seen on the Democracy Now website. It’s rough stuff for treating reporters. Apparently shouting “Press, Press” while you’re being manhandled gets you an extra pummelary rotation on the ground.

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Christmas Island in the Pacific was one of the islands used by the British to test their hydrogen bombs between 1957-1962. The nuclear test ban treaty, signed in 1963, ended testing in the region, leaving the island in a state of rubble from leftover construction and the imprint of a very large bomb. The hydrogen bombs tested there included a 3000 kiliton explosion detonated at 8200 feet and a 24 kiloton explosion from a tower over land (the Hiroshima atomic bomb was 15 kilotons). On several occasions since the test ban treaty, both the U.S. and British visited the region to evaluate radioactivity and reported finding none. The British have since done a massive cleanup and disposed of tons of leftover debris. Salon Reporter David Wolman visited the island recently with a Geiger counter and describes a place of pristine beauty, including one of the world’s largest unperturbed coral reefs. The island is teeming with birds and surrounded by an abundance of fish and giant coral formations–a scuba diver’s paradise. The background radioactivity he measured was less than what one would find within an American city. Because humans were not allowed into the region for many years (there are still areas deemed unsafe among the testing sites, including areas in Nevada), the region has rebounded with abundant life and coral reefs that look like they might have appeared when Captain James Cook discovered the atoll on Christmas Eve, 1777. But the coral reef has probably improved since Cook’s discovery, since the large bomb crater has been the site of a new untouched intact growth of coral apparently stunning to the scuba diver. Wolman describes the region as “atomic tourism with a naturalist spin.”

Apparently, the region has now become popular to sport-fisherman who come, with sunblock and uv protective clothing (it seems you can get a sunburn through a t-shirt-not aided by radioactivity) and fly fish in the shallow reefs for bonefish. One of the tourists remarked, “The contrast of it is amazing. I mean, the hydrogen bomb is the most powerful and destructive thing there is, right? Yet out here, this place, and the reefs we saw yesterday — it’s just gorgeous.”
Much of the Pacific atoll region was left deserted after the bomb testing, although villagers have returned in some regions. But the absence of exploitive human behavior has allowed nature to take over and reconstitute the area to give the oddest juxtaposition between man’s most destructive weapon and nature’s ability to do repair work in his absence. If you’re planning a vacation there Christmas Island is only about 3 hours away from Honolulu. I guess the message is “take your flyrod.”

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